The week after carrying the lone-ruck position against Geelong, new recruit Sean Darcy again found himself taking the reigns on Sunday against St Kilda at Domain Stadium.

Darcy started the game playing as a back-up to lead ruckman Aaron Sandilands before the Freo veteran left the field early in the first quarter with a hamstring injury without recording a hitout.

In his post-match media conference, senior coach Ross Lyon ruled Sandilands out for the season, making Darcy the most likely choice to lead Freo’s engine-room for the remaining eight games.

After collecting 40 hitouts against Geelong, Darcy collected 33 against St Kilda and kicked his first AFL goal.

His opponent, Billy Longer, collected 48.

Darcy improved on his hitouts to advantage with eight, including one that set up Lachie Neale for a crucial goal in the opening term. 

“Sandi’s a big player in our team,” Darcy said. 

“So with him going down it was hard to cope for a bit.”

“(Longer) is quite a good player and a lot stronger than I expected, but I thought I competed alright.”

Darcy’s goal came during a see-sawing second term. Throwing the ball on his left foot from 40 metres out.

Just minutes later, fellow first-year player Brennan Cox kicked his first AFL goal.

“It was a bit of a fluke, I just chucked it on my boot and it went in,” Darcy said.

“I just chucked it on the boot, hoped for the best and it went through.

"It was also unreal to see Brennan kick his goal. He’s been playing well for the past two weeks so it’s good for him.”

Darcy said that Fremantle would focus on preventing the skill errors that proved costly on the day.

“It was a tough loss,” Darcy said.

“Ross couldn’t question our effort but a couple of skill errors killed us in the end.

“We competed well so that’s the main thing. Our effort is there but we just need to work through the basics, our skill execution and stuff like that.”