Caleb Serong has been a shining light for Fremantle to start the 2023 season, standing up as the midfield has struggled to find their feet at times in the opening five rounds.

While Andrew Brayshaw leads Fremantle for centre clearances, Serong has done his best work around the ground with 25 stoppage clearances for the season – just three behind league leader Matt Rowell.

He also leads Fremantle with 29 inside 50s and is ranked fourth in the league for kicks that lead to marks inside 50 despite Fremantle struggling with their mid-forward connection early in the season.

He played arguably his best game of 2023 against Gold Coast in Gather Round, with 37 disposals and 16 contested possessions to earn the maximum 10 coaches' votes.

Serong finished the 2022 season strongly to win Fremantle’s player of the finals – averaging 33.5 disposals over those two games.

Senior Coach Justin Longmuir said the 22-year-old has continued on that trajectory to start 2023.

“Caleb’s just carried on his form from last year, where he’s been able to get on the front foot with his physicality and his ability to hunt the ball,” Longmuir said.

“He’s had a great pre-season and has grown from that. He’s been a really consistent performer on and off the field and what you saw on the weekend is what you get during the week from both of them.”

Speaking on Triple M, Serong echoed Longmuir’s comments around consistency, and added that he’s benefitted from having an uninterrupted summer.

“My biggest thing I’ve been working on is consistency and making sure that week in week out, no matter how I’m feeling or what’s going on externally, I’m producing the same effort and intensity and bringing my best self to every game,” Serong told Triple M.

“Having a really good block of pre-season, that gives you a lot of confidence going into the start of the year.

“My pre-season last year going into the 2022 season, I had about six weeks off with a broken finger. That hampered my pre-season and I wasn’t able to do any contest or contact stuff. That’s probably the biggest part of my game that I like to focus on.

“Not having that really affected it. This pre-season I was really lucky to have some touch under my belt.”

Serong said he couldn’t wait to come up against Marcus Bontempelli in Friday night’s Len Hall Tribute Game at Optus Stadium.

“He's definitely one that I always love playing on and against,” Serong said.

“He’s a very different player to me, he’s a very big, tall midfielder. It’s always a challenge trying to come up against him and combat his strengths because if I was to go and try and wrestle him and go against him with his strengths, I’d be in a fair bit of strife.

“I have to try and think of ways I can get the most out of myself and my ability.

“Our midfield coach Joel Corey worked a fair bit at the Doggies before he came over so you can kind of see a fair bit of his teaching in Bont’s game, that’s for sure.”

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