Midfielder Lachie Neale has refused to look for reasons to excuse Fremantle’s 55-point loss to Brisbane on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
Fremantle were rocked by the pre-game withdrawal of Aaron Sandilands and the second quarter injury to Nat Fyfe, but Neale felt the standard of play by those on the field was well below what is expected of the group.
Speaking post-game to 6PR, Neale also played down a question asking if coming off the bye had any effect.
“It’s a game of footy, after a week off we should be fresh and popping. Unfortunately, we weren’t,” Neale told 6PR.
“We played without Nathan and Aaron a few weeks ago and beat Adelaide, so we can’t pin it on that.
“I suppose the only thing it would have affected was our rotations (after the loss of Fyfe).
“In the ruck, the Lions dominated and we needed to be better as midfielders and not let them get the run and carry and, unfortunately, we couldn’t stop them all day.”
Neale said win or lose, Fremantle was looking for long-term improvement and felt Sunday’s performance was not indicative of the group’s potential.
“We’ve got a long goal in mind, it was unfortunate that we didn’t play any full quarters of footy,” Neale said.
“I can’t really say we ticked off any quarters with the effort and intensity and the way we want to play footy.
“The message throughout was there is a longer goal in sight. It’s not just about today.
“We’re striving for bigger and better things and we want to be a consistent footy team that is really hard to play against and get results.
“Today was a step backwards but we will re-group pretty quickly, we’ve got a six-day break and we’ll take on Melbourne next week.”
