Fremantle leader David Mundy couldn’t fault Freo’s effort all through the RAC Derby despite West Coast running out 13-point winners on Saturday night at Optus Stadium.
Fremantle took it up to the reigning premiers all game, however Mundy felt Freo’s execution let them down on the night.
This was most obvious in front of goal, with Fremantle left to rue their 7.14 (56) to 10.9 (69) loss.
“I think our fundamentals were really strong tonight, across the board, we had a really good buy-in and effort from the entire group,” Mundy said.
“We let ourselves down with some of our execution going forward but I think the fundamentals were good.”
Mundy was acting captain due in absence of Nat Fyfe and starred for Fremantle, racking up 36 disposals, 23 contested possessions and 10 clearances.
Fremantle were up against it at quarter time, down by 26-points despite having just one fewer scoring shot.
“(At quarter time) we were saying that the scoreboard wasn’t really a true reflection,” Mundy said.
“West Coast were really good going forward and made the most of their opportunities. They had some really good goals and easy goals out the back on us, which was really frustrating.
“On our end, going forward, we missed quite a lot of relatively simple shots.
“All night, it didn’t feel like the scoreboard was a true representation about how the game was going, so in that sense, we're really buoyed to continue on with our effort and try and execute as best as we could.”
Fremantle appeared to be up against it with the loss of key defender Joel Hamling half-way through the second term due to concussion.
Mundy felt the defence did an excellent job to ensure that the loss of Hamling didn’t appear to impact the result, with Fremantle winning each of the final three quarters.
“It took a little bit of reshuffling back there but our back six, in particular, were really good again,” Mundy said.
“That’s a whole system thing and I thought across the board, our effort and the mechanics around our gameplan was really strong.”
