Vice Captain Caleb Serong says Fremantle face a lot of ‘unknowns’ heading into round one despite St Kilda Senior Coach Ross Lyon being familiar to a handful of his teammates.
The round one clash at Marvel Stadium on Sunday will be the first time Freo face their former senior coach under Justin Longmuir.
As well as likely having a new game plan, the Saints line-up is relatively uncertain due to pre-season injuries, with 12 players listed as unavailable.
With the uncertainty, Serong said Fremantle will focus internally on what they can control.
“There’s a bit of unknown, a new coach and a few new players,” Serong said.
“For us, it’s going to be a heavy focus on ourselves and making sure we’re playing the footy we want to play.
“A lot of us never played under Ross. I’ve never met Ross (the same as) a lot of guys that are my age or younger.”
Fremantle are looking to build on their fifth-place finish in 2022, a campaign that started with a thrilling round one win against Adelaide.
Serong said Freo know the importance of starting the season strongly.
“Every chance you go out there, you try and set the tone - especially in any round one clash,” Serong said.
“It was the same as last year where we were able to get a good win against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, which is tough fixture no matter what the stage of the year is.
“For us, we just want to get the season going off really well.”
After returning to finals and advancing to the semi finals in 2022, Serong acknowledged that expectations are higher this year.
The 22-year-old said he and his teammates were focused on improving without getting caught up in the outcome.
“Last year, no-one really expected us to make finals and we were able to finish where we did and win a final at home, which was good,” Serong said.
“In terms of our expectations, we just want to get better. Whatever that looks like, is to show at the end of the season.
“We want to get better week on week, and that improvement is going to come in a lot of different ways, but we get our first chance to show that on Sunday.”
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