With an injured Aaron Sandilands on the sidelines, Fremantle have been relying on their younger ruck stocks to bear the load.

On Sunday at Optus Stadium against Port Adelaide, it was Sean Darcy who was given the primary ruck role, however first-year ruckman Scott Jones also got the call up to support the 20-year-old in Fremantle’s nine-point win.

With Darcy taking the lead – contesting 70 per cent of ruck contests – Jones was sent forward where he kicked one of Fremantle’s eight majors on the day.

Jones also collected 11 hitouts while eight of his nine possessions were contested.

According to David Mundy, Jones was not so much up front to kick goals but to create opportunities for the small forwards.

“We don’t need (the tall forwards) to do anything too special, especially for big Jones,” Mundy said post-game.

“His mindset going in was to just play big, create a contest and I thought he did that.”

Standing at 203cm and weighing in at 115kg, Fremantle used Jones as their primary target in marking contests, looking for either a contested mark or for Jones to bring the ball to ground.

Jones was the main target four times, while Darcy was the only other multiple target with two.

Of those four contests, Jones picked up one contested mark and neutralised two others.

By bringing the ball to the ground, Fremantle then looked to lock the ball in.

Freo’s forward-half tackling was immense against the Power, laying 50 tackles in their forward-half – four more than any other AFL team in round 17.

Five Fremantle players ranked in the top-15 for forward-half tackling in round 17, through Adam Cerra (6), Stefan Giro (5), Bailey Banfield (5), Brennan Cox (5) and Cam Sutcliffe (5).

“All the big boys forward of the ball were really great with their competition and bringing the ball to the ground,” Mundy said.

“I thought we were a bit more brave in taking a bit of ground. I think especially around the ball, we were really fierce today, which was great.”

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