Optus Stadium is quickly becoming a formidable place to visit according to Fremantle forward Brandon Matera.
Fremantle secured their fourth win from four games against interstate opponents at the venue on Saturday night, notching up a 30-point victory against St Kilda.
Arriving at Fremantle from the Gold Coast via the 2017 NAB AFL Trade Period, Matera said Optus Stadium was one of the biggest drawing factors for his new club.
“I’m loving it at Fremantle, it’s good to have a win and get back to four and four,” Matera said.
“It's great just to be around these boys, especially playing at home in front of big crowds every second week.”
Only one interstate team has won at Optus Stadium this season when Sydney defeated West Coast in round one, while the Eagles claimed an eight-point victory against Freo in the round six Western Derby.
“We’ve won most of our games at Optus Stadium, so it’s awesome to be playing here,” Matera said.
“The game we did lose, it could have gone either way.
"It’s good for us and we’re using it as a fortress and, hopefully, teams are getting scared to come here and play us.”
Fremantle went into Saturday night’s game without injured forwards Michael Walters and Matt Taberner and the team stepped up in their absence with 11 individual goalkickers.
One of Matera's two majors came from a quick-fire end-to-end transition, with a Luke Ryan kick-in down the middle of the ground leading to a goal 13 seconds later.
"It’s always good to get a couple but it was a team effort and I’m happy to finish off their work," Matera said.
“Everyone was chipping in, it doesn’t matter who’s out of the team, everyone’s taking their spot and contributing.
“We played better with the ball and used our kicks more and then we took our one-on-ones down the ground and kicked a winning score.”
Fremantle heads east to face Sydney in round nine, where the Swans are looking to turn around their home record.
Sydney has lost all three of their games against interstate opponents at the SCG this season, with their lone win at home against GWS in round three.
Fremantle is hunting their first win at home this season and Matera believes Freo is up to the task.
“Sydney’s going to be a tough challenge for us,” Matera said.
“It’s a small ground so we’re going to have to win the contested footy inside and get it going our way and, hopefully, we can kick a winning score.”