With the return of Nat Fyfe, Fremantle unveiled a new look and full strength midfield in their 13-point win against Hawthorn on Saturday at Optus Stadium.

Two-time Brownlow Medallist joined what had already been a high performing engine room in Andrew Brayshaw, David Mundy, Caleb Serong, Will Brodie and rucks Sean Darcy and Rory Lobb.

With this game being the first time with Fyfe and Brodie in the same lineup, here are six takeaways from this group’s first game together.

WHAT A WIN! There's still time to join the Purple Army

Fyfe’s still got it
Fyfe’s messaging was clear heading into his long-awaited return, saying he was ‘rusty’ and ‘a long way from his best’ in his WAFL hitout a week prior.
But despite attending the equal-fewest centre bounces of the midfielders, he had the equal-most clearances.
He also had eight first possessions, which trailed Serong (10) but was more than Brayshaw (3), Brodie (2) and Mundy (1).

Fyfe Forward = More Fyfe
Fremantle’s midfielders have been put through a heavy rotation in 2022 and have a comparatively low time on ground percentage compared to most AFL midfielders.
With Senior Coach Justin Longmuir saying they aimed for a 50/50 split for Fyfe between midfield and forward, he was able to play 81.2 per cent game time despite being eased back into his return.
Below are the time on ground percentages for Freo’s mids this year.

Strength around the ground
While Hawthorn had a slight edge in the centre clearances, Freo’s mids dominated around the ground at the throw-ins and ball-ups.
The Hawks were +1 for first possessions at the centre square but Freo were +11 at the throw ins and +7 at the ball ups.

Serong ‘The General’
Fyfe may have been the captain but he was happy to defer to the likes the 21-year-old Serong and 22-year-old Brayshaw at the centre square and stoppages.
He believes the midfield veterans like himself and Mundy can play a lot more freely as Freo’s young midfield core step up.
Brayshaw and Serong topped the coaches votes against Brisbane, combining for 70 disposals, 15 clearances and 13 tackles and they will likely earn votes again this week after once again totalling 70 disposals between them.
“Dave and I, our connection is pretty tight, but with Caleb, Andy, Will Brodie, Sean Darcy...there's some work to do just to build that instinctiveness of where each of us are, what our strengths are, where we'd like to play,” Fyfe told ABC Grandstand.
“I was really lucky that Caleb was the general out there, telling me where to go, where to stand and as a senior player, that's a good position to be.”

Who to stop?
With Freo’s midfield depth, Fyfe believes teams will struggle if they just focus on one player.
Brayshaw has been the player most likely to cop a tag this year and is currently sitting second in the AFL Coaches’ voting and is one of the favourites for the Brownlow Medal.
But if a team tried to limit Brayshaw, Fyfe says it will just create more opportunity for others.
“You never win a game of footy with one or two players playing well, you need a full system and our midfield now is a pretty broad structure, there's a lot to have to go after,” Fyfe said.
“If one gets off the chain and they clamp it, someone else can come up. I think Andy and Caleb are the generals in there now, which for David and I is a good position to be in, we can just be the level heads and fill gaps where we need to.”

Equal best this year
There was a lot of discussion early in the season about Fremantle's ability to score off turnovers (ranked first in the AFL) but not from the stoppages (ranked last in the AFL).
This has turned around in recent weeks, and Freo’s +33 point differential was their equal best of the season alongside their efforts last week against Brisbane.
The below table shows Freo's scores for and against from stoppages this season.

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