Lachie Neale says Fremantle’s flexibility in the midfield has been crucial to winning six of their past seven games.
Carlton raced out of the blocks on Sunday in wet conditions at Domain Stadium, kicking the opening four goals of the contest before Fremantle put up an impressive fightback.
Young midfielder Connor Blakely racked up 33 touches and brought his trademark pressure with nine tackles - while Michael Walters played a mix of midfield and forward, racking up 27 disposals and kicking three goals.
But it was Neale who led Freo’s engine room in a best on ground performance with 37 disposals, eight clearances and a goal.
“It’s important for us to have that flexibility in the midfield,” said Neale in a post-game interview on Fox Footy.
“We’ve got guys like David (Mundy), Nathan (Fyfe) and Connor Blakely rotating through the midifled and going forward.
“And it’s good to have Stephen Hill back from injury as he can go through the midfield and play on the wing as well.”
Carlton dominated the early proceedings with the first 12 inside 50s and building a 20-point lead at quarter time.
But Freo responded by kicking 13 of the last 16 goals of the contest.
“It was wet then it was dry then it got wet again,” said Neale about the conditions at Domain.
“It was a good response from the boys as our first quarter was pretty average.
“We know Carlton have played some pretty good footy over the past month and that that they were going to fight it out until the end - so we had to do the same.
“So it was important that we came out in the second quarter and showed up.
“Our second half was a lot better and it was good to get the win."
