Nathan Wilson is enjoying his second pre-season at Fremantle but the star defender can’t wait for the real thing to commence in late March.
Fremantle start their season at Optus Stadium against North Melbourne on Sunday 24 March and Wilson feels he’s on target to peak for the opening round.
“Pre-season has been good,” Wilson said.
“I started off pretty slowly but I’m getting going now. There’s not long left and I’m looking forward to getting into some games soon.
“With the way I’m going at the moment, I’m feeling pretty fit. The boys are looking really good and we’re all looking forward to the games starting.”
Wilson said a pre-season focus has been on team bonding, with a significant percentage of Fremantle’s list arriving at the club in the past three seasons.
This includes Wilson, who arrived at the club from GWS following the 2017 season.
“At the start of my time at Freo, it was difficult at times, working under a new system and working to a new game plan,” Wilson said.
“That’s why we went to the Gold Coast for a bit of a bonding session and we trained hard over there. It was good to be around the boys, we were around each other 24/7.
“This year it's all been simplified and the new boys have really embraced it. Rory Lobb, Jesse Hogan, Reece Conca and Travis Colyer, they’re all going well.
“I think ‘Hoges’ should be back training pretty soon so it would be good for him. Rory is especially going well and it’s good to have another former Giants boy here.”
Wilson said he’s still wrapping his head around the new rules for the 2019 season, with the new kick-in rule directly affecting Wilson, who takes approximately half of Freo’s kick-ins.
The rule will allow the defender more space to play on from the goalsquare, and has removed the need to kick it to themselves before leaving the square - making it even easier to play on.
Wilson could see a bump in his possession numbers this season, with any kick taken outside of the goalsquare counting as a stat.
“I’m not too sure what to make of the kick-in rules,” Wilson said.
“But they’ll be good as you don’t have to kick to yourself anymore and the forward is a bit back on the mark so it will give me the opportunity to run a bit more.
“I hope we’ll be able to take advantage of it, we’ve only just started looking at it in our training drills in the last week or two. We have a bit to work on to see how we’ll handle it.”
