Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has flagged changes to the club's post-bye plan after the Freo Dockers were outpointed to the tune of 55 points by a “razor sharp” Brisbane at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
Freo looked a shade off the pace from the opening bounce and conceded a 17-point quarter-time advantage to the 17th-placed Lions, who hadn't won an opening term all year.
Brisbane was the more cohesive team all day and ran hard both ways to test the Dockers' work rate in defence and attack.
When the final siren sounded, Brisbane led the count for disposals (393-315), clearances (46-37), inside 50s (50-47), marks inside 50 (17-7) and contested possessions 141-122) while holding their own for tackles (56-63), despite having more of the ball.
"Somewhere in our preparation, we didn't nail what we needed to nail – that's indisputable," Lyon said.
"Now is it me, is it our (strength and conditioning) team, is it the players, is it a collective? That's the debate.
"We won't linger on it but we'll have a bit of a look to make sure. You would think we would have to change things going forward.
"The results are telling you it's a challenge within the League – a team off the bye playing a team that's razor sharp, ready to go and dog hungry."
Lyon also voiced the difficulty of communicating with his team during their week off.
"It's my job to see the bigger picture (and) try to prepare them for the bigger picture," he said.
"You're telling them about Brisbane – that they've got good levels of competency, they can score if you don't pressure them, they've got good spread, they've beaten us last year so they come with a 'let's get this done (attitude)' (and) they're dog hungry to get a win.
"So you're sharing all that and you're working with your strength and conditioning team – they'll give you the kilometres and what we
should do – and you've got to respect that, because they tend to get it right.
"At all times you're trying to needle to keep that edge on.
"It just highlights at a really high level of performance, a second of time in AFL footy of reaction and spread is eight metres and you’re going to look at times how we look."
