Assistant coach Josh Carr took part in 40 wins in his four seasons as a player at Fremantle but he could arguably add another to his name after providing the impetus for Freo’s remarkable turnaround in their 38-point win against Narrm (Melbourne) on Saturday at the MCG.
Fremantle trailed by as much as 30 points before half time, with Narrm’s Oliver being responsible for most of the damage in the midfield with 24 disposals by half time.
Oliver would add just 12 more touches for the game as James Aish played a run-with role on the gun Demon in the second half.
While Senior Coach Justin Longmuir has dubbed Aish as his ‘Mr Fix It’ this season, it was the midfield coach who made the call on the role change.
Fremantle were -4 in the clearances at half time but finished the game +10 as they romped to victory.
Midfielder Andrew Brayshaw praised Carr’s bravery in making the call, saying it helped Fremantle get the game on their terms.
“I think James Aish going to Clayton Oliver was a huge move, it really nullified him,” Brayshaw told ABC Grandstand.
“Then Sean Darcy got his hand to a lot of centre square bounce tops. From there, I thought we were just really hungry in the contest, clean, stayed over the ball and then provided our forwards with good opportunities and they capitalised.”
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Melbourne kicked six straight goals from late in the first term to late in the second term before Fremantle kicked 13 of the last 14 majors.
Longmuir said it started with Fremantle getting the structure right in the middle.
“Josh Carr did a great job, he got our mids set up the right way, he wanted to give James Aish a job on Oliver because he’d had 15 possessions in five minutes into the second quarter, so he was doing damage,” Longmuir said.
“That was the stoppage stuff, which we just tried to make it more of a contest. Repeat stoppages were okay, so we really locked down in there, which we did and then gradually got on top.”
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