A crowd of about 50,000 people is expected at the MCG on Saturday and Fremantle plan to use the hostile environment to remain focused, says Garrick Ibbotson.
If 50,000 people attend Saturday’s game it would be the largest home and away crowd Fremantle has ever played in front of.
The current record is 45,436 against Adelaide at AAMI Oval in Round 1 2003.
Ibbotson said a rowdy reception would keep Fremantle focused on its own game plan.
“It’s good to play in front of a big crowd and it’s going to be a hostile crowd,” he said.
“We’ll try use that to our advantage.
“Whenever the crowd is up and about we’ll use that as a trigger to our game plan and get back to what we’re doing.
“To get as many people there as we can will be great.”
Ibbotson said he was excited to play at the home of football.
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“We don’t get many opportunities to play at the MCG,” he said.
“We’ll have two games this year in the home and away season.
“We really want to play well there when we get the opportunity to.
“To play against Richmond there, who beat us earlier in the season, is a good game for us to challenge them and see where we are at.”
Fremantle play Richmond at the MCG on Saturday 25 July. Bounce down is at 4.35pm local time.