Fremantle forward Michael Frederick has said despite the loss of Club captain Alex Pearce the playing group will continue to trust the squad’s depth ahead of the clash with the Swans in round 16, with the speedy forward believing the midfield battle will be key in determining the outcome of the game. 

“They’ve (Sydney) got a pretty good even mix of talented midfielders, but I think our midfield can match up against them,” Frederick said during his Tuesday media conference.

“I think it will be a good battle, probably be a contested game and will probably be where the game is won and lost.

“We’re going into this game with a lot of confidence in backing up what we did on the weekend... It will be a great test.”

Coming off an impressive 20-point victory over the Gold Coast Suns, Fremantle’s midfield group combined for seven of the Club’s 12 goals.

Sydney’s midfield core of Chad Warner, Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden have combined for 55 goals so far this season, something that Frederick is keen to see Fremantle’s midfielders continue to do.

“Jaymie Graham (Fremantle’s forward line coach) says that they (the midfielders) aren’t coming down for a rest, they are there to impact and Youngy has done that (on the weekend).

“Andy (Brayshaw) plays up forward a bit and Caleb (Serong) here and there.

“It will be nice to see if that spread can get on the scoreboard and help us as forwards as well.”

With Club captain Alex Pearce set to miss about a month of football following his forearm fracture, Frederick said he is confident in the Club’s depth and next man up mentality.

“Moose has been playing really well this year, so it is definitely a big loss losing our captain but we just spoke about how we’ve got a great leadership group and leaders in our backline in general,” Frederick said.

“We feel that the next man can just come in and kind of fill in that role and everyone else can get it done around the back six or seven.

“Definitely a big loss but I guess three to four weeks isn’t too bad."