Andrew Brayshaw said his first RAC Derby win was a “pretty surreal” moment after Fremantle’s impressive 55-point win against West Coast on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
This is the second consecutive RAC Derby Fremantle have won after breaking their Derby drought of 11 losses to West Coast last year in round 22.
The fifth-year midfielder was unfortunately on the sidelines for last year’s RAC Derby win after suffering a one-match ban for high contact.
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Brayshaw finished the match with 26 disposals, 512 metres gained and 11 score involvements.
“It’s pretty surreal, it’s actually my first derby win,” Brayshaw told Fox Footy.
“I missed out on the one last year and it’s my fifth year here at the club now and that’s the first one I’ve been a part of.
“We’ve got a pretty special young group as well, so we’re really proud.”
After facing a disappointing 10-point loss to St. Kilda last week the midfielder said the ‘young group’ focused on their ball movement heading into the match, which was an area that let them down in round 2.
“We really wanted to be brave with our ball movement,” Brayshaw said.
“We thought last week we were quite safe going down the line a fair bit but this time when we got a turnover we looked corridor, we looked open side and we really shifted their defence.
“(Jeremy) McGovern loves taking grabs, so we tried to work away from him, and I think that opened up a lot of space for our forwards.”
The midfield complimented Lloyd Meek and how well he held up against West Coast’s Nic Naitanui in the ruck in the absence of the injured Sean Darcy.
“Lloyd Meek, he’s amazing,” Brayshaw said.
“He works really hard.
“This preseason has been a huge body of work for him, so for him to come out and run around with Naitanui and really give it to him in that first half when it was really hot.
“Naitanui is a gun but ‘Meeky’ put up his own and I’m really proud of him.”
