Defender Brennan Cox is a chance to play in the Club’s round one clash with Brisbane after suffering a stress reaction in his leg in January, according to Fremantle Executive General Manager of Football Joe Brierty.

Brierty says Cox has progressed well since returning from injury and will be required to pull up well from training this week.

“Brennan has been progressing really well. He’s had the last three full sessions of footy, and he’ll do some full sessions again this week and plan to be available,” Brierty told Mark Duffield on SEN WA Monday morning. 

“I’m confident in this point in time with the way his body is going. Obviously, there is a bit he needs to get through over the next couple of days to be available.

“Then it’s making sure he feels confident in himself. He’s missed a fair chunk of time.

“Hopefully he progresses through the next couple of training sessions and feels good, and then he can put his name up for selection.”

Brierty also noted that fellow speedsters Brandon Walker and Michael Frederick were progressing well and were a chance to also feature against the Lions.

“Brandon Walker returning from injury played 75 minutes (for Peel Thunder in their preseason game). It looks like he hasn’t lost any of his speed and abilities, so it was great to see him progressing well, and it will make him available for full minutes this weekend,” Brierty said.

“He’s still got some testing he’ll need to get through.

“Frederick is on track to face the Lions this week. He’s probably a test this week but we’re confident he’s done the work so far, so again he’ll be another that needs to get through main training and tick all the right boxes, but he’s been really good.

“He’s got his high-speed running up and stayed where we wanted, so we are really pleased and the plan is for him to be available.”

When asked about how the Club felt about facing off against a team that featured in Opening Round, Brierty says the players were up for the challenge. 

“You can have different ideas about what might be the positives or negatives about the way that opening round has been setup we can only play what’s in front of us, and I think our boys are really excited about the challenge of getting to play against a contender,” Brierty said.

“From our point of view, we get to look at it through a lens that we’ve seen them and get to have a really detailed look at how they went about it with their personnel that they played with.

“Our boys should be fresh and ready to go in front of a packed Purple Army on Sunday.”