The Fremantle Dockers have been acknowledged in recent seasons for their forward line pressure, due to the efforts players such as Michael Walters, Hayden Ballantyne and Chris Mayne.
But following his performance against Richmond on Friday, Tendai Mzungu said he was keen to add himself into that mix of pressuring forwards.
“I played a bit of a different role up forward today,” Mzungu said.
“I’m going to continue to try do as much as I can and really lock the ball down in the forward line.
“You look at Hayden Ballantyne, ‘Son Son’ (Walters) and Chris Mayne and the amount of pressure they put on, they’re the benchmark.”
Mzungu made his presence felt in Freo’s first NAB Challenge game, imposing himself physically as well as laying a number of tackles that could be heard across Rushton Park.
The Freo running machine admitted that he was relieved to finally be able to assert himself on other competition.
“Yeah it’s nice to tackle someone other than your own teammates for once,” he laughed.
Freo’ first pre-season game also gave Mzungu an opportunity to see his younger teammates in competition, and the 97 game veteran was very impressed.
“Darcy Tucker and Sam Collins’ composure in their first games were a real feature today,” he said.
“And (Connor) Blakely and (Lachie) Weller continue to improve and it’s great for the team’s confidence to know that we can all trust them to do their job.
“They were all really impressive and fit seamlessly into what we want to do.”
