Brad Hardie and Karl Langdon interviewed Fremantle CEO Steve Rosich for 6PR Sports Today.

BH: Nobody saw this coming, you probably felt it may have come at some time down the track, how quickly has this fall come on your shoulders?

SR: We’ve come off four really strong seasons, we were well and truly in contention in 2013, 14 and 15 and in that time winning the second most games in the competition to Hawthorn, so it was a strong base to build upon.

Our form wasn’t what the coaches or the players wanted at the start of this season and now, (especially) compounded with injuries.

We’ve become used to winning and unfortunately for us, and our supporters we’re not seeing that at the moment.

What we are seeing is things through a different lens and the opportunities for some players that they wouldn’t have got in a team that had all their players up and going and winning football games.

KL: So where to from here Steve? Do you want to see your list experimented with so you can know and understand about what you’ve got?

SR: The short answer is yes. People come up with different words, and I’m not about defining a word for it, whether it’s rebuilding or resetting. That’s our opportunity now. We have a significant challenge with the fact that we’ve got a number of our quality players and leadership group that are not out on the paddock and not supporting our young developing players.

But through that challenge comes opportunity, we’re getting young players who are getting exposed to league football and to roles and responsibilities that they perhaps wouldn’t have got with those players around.

You can see the likes of Alex Pearce, who had grown, but unfortunately is now out for the season, which is disappointing for the football club and Alex, who’s such a fine young man.

Others like Lachie Weller, Connoy Blakely, Ed Langdon, Darcy Tucker and maybe pretty soon a new draftee in Sam Collins, and perhaps later in the year Shane Yarran will get opportunities and that’s what our supporters can look forward to, and our coaches continuing to develop those players and our game style for the future.

BH: Is this list cooked? What do you think is needed to reinvigorate this list going forward in 2017?

SR: I’m not seeing people that are “cooked”, I’m seeing people that are working really hard and focused on improving in a cohesive group. People that are approaching their work with enthusiasm and as you indicated, we’re seeing the effort. If any side in the 18 had Fyfe, Bennell, Johnson, Sandilands, Hill, Mundy and now Alex Pearce not playing they’re going to be challenged, but that’s a great opportunity for us.

In terms of what we do for the future, it’s the same thing we do every year, and I can assure our members and supporters we look at every aspect of our football operations to make sure we have things in place to give us the best chance of securing success in the future and that’s what we’re doing now.

Are we rebuilding? Well yes we are, we’re resetting it for the future to make sure that we can get back to where we want to be, and that’s one of the best performing teams in the competition, which we have been the past four years and we’ll continue to be a considered and pragmatic footy club to give us the best chance at doing that.

KL: Outside of WA boys coming home, it’s been really difficult to attract quality talent. What have you seen as the issues as to why players won’t head west?

SR: We’re a club with strong fundamentals, we are attractive to players and we have a number of conversations with players and we are already looking at them as being future Fremantle Dockers players.

We have a strong coach, a strong group of players that will take us forward into the future. It’s a great market here in West Australia but the practicalities are that anyone who comes here, unless they’re coming from West Coast, have to move interstate and teams in Melbourne have nine teams to poach. That’s a challenge but we’re up for that.

This situation allows us to attack our list management activities a bit sooner than we normally could, and we’re finding that we’re having very productive and positive discussions in that space. There’s a long way to go but we’re certainly on the front foot. But more broadly, and I think it was reported in The West Australian on Saturday, we are undertaking a list management review which we had planned to do before the start of the season.

As you had indicated Brad, we needed to perhaps refocus our list and we’re doing that and that’ll be completed in June and set us up for our list management duties for the rest of the season, and for the first time in a long time it looks like we’ll have an early draft pick and that’s currency we haven’t had in a very long time.

In fact, we’ve had only two top 10 picks since 2008 and that’s indicative of our strong performances on the field and only Hawthorn has had less than that. Other teams such as the Western Bulldogs have had a few more than that and there’s some outliers like GWS, Gold Coast and Melbourne who we’re chasing in that respect but we’re up for that challenge as well.

BH: Weather was an element that certainly curtailed the attendance (against Richmond), are you concerned with the numbers lately? Are you getting any backlash from members, supporters and sponsors about the team’s performance?

SR: It was certainly a dirty night weather wise, it was a night Perth hadn’t seen for some time. It was an eagerly anticipated game (Richmond) right through the early part of the season.

We sold more than 43,000 tickets to the game and we weren’t surprised to be honest to see a little more than 20,000 at the game. To those who braved the weather I applaud them and thank them. It wasn’t a very nice night and I can’t blame those supporters who decided to go to the pub or stay home to watch the game.

That sort of game we would’ve expected on a Saturday night with fair weather, 37,000 to 38,000 people. We have terrific members and they’ll continue to support us throughout the season no doubt.

KL: One thing that has been difficult and both West Coast and Freo, the (corporate) boxes aren’t full, from a financial environment off the field it’s been quite difficult hasn’t it?

SR: It has in some respects but hasn’t in others. We’re at record membership this year, which is a great show of support and it’s terrific that our members and supporters continue to get behind our footy club and, as I said, they’ll look through the lens this year of how our young players are developing and how we set ourselves at the end of the year to move back to where we want to be in 2017 and beyond.

In the sponsorship space, we’re actually ahead of budget and I can’t find another sporting club like that in the country. It’s been terrific to see not only our current sponsors stay on, but new sponsors come on board.

The one tough market is the corporate hospitality market and that’s a global phenomenon and we’re working really closely with our clients there and the new Perth Stadium will see us address that really well. It’s an exciting project, it’s great to drive by when we got to the airport and see it coming out of the ground and that’ll provide a new experience for our corporate partners and members in season 2018.

BH: As part of the review, will that include the sports science and physical side of things, as you’ve had a few soft tissue injuries?

SR: As I said, we look at every aspect of our football operations every year. We have had some collision injuries this year, that are pretty hard to avoid and are unfortunate such as Nat Fyfe, Alex Pearce and the Sandilands situation, and we’ve had some soft tissue injuries especially in the lower leg area.

We analyse each and every injury when they occur, whether it’s at training or in a game so we’re doing that and we have a particular focus on our lower leg injuries with our pre-season, our load management and those sorts of things.

We’re talking to experts both nationally and internationally and that work is ongoing, so that we’re on top of it and ensuring that we’re first class in that area.

KL: Who’s going to get the women’s team, Freo or West Coast?

SR: All I can say is that we’ve put in a very serious bid, we think it’s an exciting space that we’ve been operating in with WA Women’s football so we’re not surprised to see that growth. We put an extensive submission in, 189 pages. It was very considered and with our strong partners the City of Cockburn and also Curtin University, we think it’s a compelling one. Obviously it’s up to the AFL, and we’re looking forward to the decision either later this month or in early June.