FREMANTLE coach Mark Harvey has tapped into the world game ahead of his side's testing second half of the year with a mid-season visit to the Socceroos in Sydney.
Harvey used the first week of the split round to gain a unique insight into the professionalism of an international sporting side as the Socceroos rounded out their successful World Cup qualification.
The coach said the experience, which included spending extended time with coaches and players, was worthwhile.
"It was a very good insight into a professional organisation," Harvey said from Fremantle Oval on Wednesday.
"To see the discipline of the Australian European players who come back and to see how they operate [under] a Dutch coach ... I found it very interesting."
Harvey said he gained a particular insight from the training techniques and decision-making skills used by the Socceroos.
Any edge gained would be particularly handy this week, with Harvey's men up against raging premiership favourite Geelong for the first of two clashes in 11 weeks.
Fremantle travels to Skilled Stadium in round 22.
"That's a good challenge for a young group to find out how far we're progressing," Harvey said of the challenging fixture.
"I think Geelong have only got three players out of their side, so once again it gives us a good opportunity to pit ourselves against Geelong knowing that we did play well over here the last time we played them."
Fremantle lost a Subiaco Oval thriller to the Cats by one point in round six last year, but they meet this time around in much different shape.
Harvey conceded that with one or two more debutants on the way, the second half of the season was about developing his young players and enhancing the side's game plan.
Winning was still the aim, he said, but Geelong was on a different, more immediate mission.
"I think they're really playing with a burning desire about correcting what happened in September last year," Harvey said.
"(But) the determination about this group, no matter who we play or where we play, if you have a look at our last eight weeks we've been at the forefront of games.
"So we'd like to think that we're going to be right there at some stage against Geelong.
"It's just a matter of how long our guys can sustain a competitive nature and a smart nature of playing around the midfield."
Without chief tagger Ryan Crowley, Harvey said containing Gary Ablett would be a team responsibility, with the option of educating a young player.
He added Stephen Hill, Matt de Boer and Garrick Ibbotson would continue to grow into midfield roles, with Ibbotson in his thinking for Ablett.
"We're just going to have to curb him as much as we can," Harvey said.
"The more and more we can infiltrate younger players [into the midfield], given the loss of those guys, the better off we're going to be."
