Ross Lyon has introduced goalkicking practice with consequences at Fremantle training in order to improve his side's conversion rate under pressure.
Freo kicked 3.7 in the second term of last year's semi final against Port Adelaide when the home side had all the momentum, only for the Power to come from 30 points down to knock them out of the finals series in straight sets.
Lyon's goalkicking drills were on display at Fremantle Oval on Friday. After training for an hour and 40 minutes, the whole squad gathered to watch a select group of forwards take set shots from 40m out.
Six players missed and Lyon penalised the whole squad five ‘burpees’ per miss. After the players completed three sets of 10, six midfielders and six defenders took their turn, with a penalty of 100m running per miss.
Lyon counted out loud as eight players missed, forcing the entire squad to run two laps of the ground.
When the players returned they progressed onto a match simulation drill for another 30 minutes.
Fremantle defender Cam Sutcliffe, fresh from signing a new three-year deal with the club, said goalkicking under fatigue had been a feature of the pre-season.
"We do that three or four times a week under fatigue, hopefully to improve," Sutcliffe said.
"That was obviously the punishment on the end of it, which wasn't that great.
"I'd rather probably not run those, so we should kick them next time.
"With your teammates watching, it's probably more scary than doing it in front of 40,000 people because the expectation is that they want you to kick it so we don't have to do burpees or commando rolls."
It was a brutal two-and-a-half hour session for the Freo with some physical clashes during the match simulation.
Matthew Pavlich and Jonathon Griffin did not train with the main group on Friday, however both completed a tough running session instead.
Tendai Mzungu, Aaron Sandilands and Zac Dawson were also notable absentees.
Sutcliffe said it was a tough session but nothing out of the ordinary.
"It was pretty solid today," he said. "It was definitely hard on the legs. There have been tougher ones. It's been really hot, 40 degree days and really humid all pre-season. So yeah, it's always tough."
