A near full strength Fremantle midfield faces an exciting test against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Marvel Stadium, according to Andrew Brayshaw.
Freo and the Bulldogs sit one game out of the top eight, with Fremantle in 11th and ahead of the Bulldogs on percentage.
“Definitely there’s pride on the line and then there’s also finals in the mix,” Brayshaw said.
“We’re one game out of it and there’s five weeks to go, so every win is really essential for us so this is definitely an important game this weekend.
The 19-year-old, who has played a mix of forward and midfield this season, expects the clash to be won and lost in the middle.
Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe is set to return and team up with star veterans Aaron Sandilands and David Mundy in the engine room, up against the likes of Marcus Bontempelli, Lachie Hunter and Jack Macrae.
“They’re in some really good form and they’re a really good team,” Brayshaw said.
“(Former Bulldog) Joel Hamling always talks about how good they are so, they’re going to be a really good side and they’ll try and bring it through the middle.
“We’ll need to protect the corridor hard and they have some guns in the team so we’ll have to look after them as well.”
After defeating Sydney last week, Brayshaw said that Freo want to build their momentum as they look for a repeat result of their 19-point win against the Doggies in round six.
“We’re really excited, obviously we had our first win last week in just over a month, so we’re going to take a lot of that momentum,” Brayshaw said.
“We’ve faced the Dogs before and we’re really confident we can beat them again, so there’s a lot of excitement in the group.
“I think bar one game this year, we’ve been pretty much in every game we’ve played. I think we do take a lot of confidence in that fact, that no matter how close the game is, we can go to the end and hopefully win.”
