Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe feels Freo deserve any criticism coming their way after a disappointing 91-point loss in front of their home fans in RAC Derby 50 at Optus Stadium.
The midfielder said Fremantle were comprehensively beaten in every area as West Coast cruised home in a one-sided affair.
“Not a lot went right. We are a good team on our best day and we didn’t play very well at all,” Fyfe said.
“I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of where we’re at.”
The loss has seen Freo’s average losing margin this season almost double from 11.8 to 22.8 points.
Fyfe said that Fremantle will review every aspect of their performance ahead of next Saturday’s away trip to Hawthorn in Launceston.
“We make no excuses for that performance and as a club,” Fyfe said.
“We’ll be hurting for the next couple of days but it’s important that we get strong leadership and rebound as quickly as we can.
“We won’t sweep this game under the rug. We’ll look at it as best we can, we’ll look at selection and individual performances. It wasn’t good enough and it probably starts with me.
“It’s important that we don’t fracture. We’ll get a lot of criticism coming our way and deservedly so. Internally, we need to galvanise and work our way through this as we have another contest coming up in Tasmania and a lot of footy left in us this season.”
Fyfe said he was pleased with the efforts of Darcy Tucker, who had a career-high 29 disposals, and Mitch Crowden, who came in to play his first AFL game this season after impressing in the WAFL.
“Some of our younger guys really stood up on a tough day,” Fyfe said.
“Mitch Crowden came in and impacted, I thought, and Darcy (Tucker) as well, but there were too few.”
