The AFL’s announcement on Friday of an extra round means Fremantle will adjust their pre-season accordingly, according to Senior Coach Justin Longmuir.
The round sees every Club in the league playing in Adelaide in round five as a part of a four-day festival of football.
The change means teams will only play one pre-season game against another AFL Club, which increases the importance of Freo’s match sims.
Like previous years, Longmuir is expecting Fremantle to play West Coast in the pre-season to minimise travel requirements before getting straight into round one.
The extra game will only increase the demands on the players through a longer season, making the preparation over the summer even more important.
“We need to make sure that we plan the pre-season accordingly,” Longmuir told 6PR.
“There’s things that we can do to get match fit, such as intra club games.
“We get plenty out of our intra clubs and will make sure our players are ready come round one.”
Longmuir said the extra travel requirements would be an extra challenge and looked forward to WA hosting the round in the future.
“I think it will bring a really good vibe and festival feeling to Adelaide,” Longmuir said.
“Playing the extra away game, the AFL make the rules and we abide by them and we’ll suck it up and play that extra game.
“It would have been nice to have it here in WA.”
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