Ross Lyon says he would be offended by any suggestion Fremantle is solely reliant on the dominance of star midfielder Nat Fyfe, as the Freo Dockers start the second half of their season on Thursday night against Collingwood, sitting on top of the ladder at 10-1.
Fyfe has been a huge contributor, he leads the AFL Coaches Association award by a staggering 29 votes, is number one in the AFL for possessions per game, contested possessions and clearances, and third for contested marks.
Against Gold Coast before the bye, Lyon opted to move Fyfe forward in the third term and he kicked two of the Freo Dockers' six goals for the match in the space of two minutes to establish a match-winning lead in the wet conditions.
But Lyon bristled at the suggestion Freo were perhaps too reliant on Fyfe to not only win the ball in the middle, but also push forward and kick goals.
Converting opportunities
"Well the best teams rely on their best players, it's pretty obvious," Lyon said.
"But I think our trademark is we spread the load. I think that would be accurate and we're not basketball. (The ground size is) 175m by 140m. I don't see Nat everywhere.
"We're a weight of numbers team and we would find that offensive as much as we acknowledge Nathan's importance.
"I love that Nathan runs down and he's playing for us.
"So we acknowledge that he's an elite player of the competition, but if we're depended solely on Nathan we may as well pack up and go home now."
The Freo Dockers' scoring has dried up significantly in the last three matches, averaging five goals less per game than across the first eight rounds.
But Lyon said their midfield dominance and number of entries inside forward 50 remained high, choosing to nominate his side's poor finishing as a major reason for their scoring drop off, after they kicked 6.17 against the Suns.
"Conversion is a much-underrated statistic," Lyon said.
"Everyone across the board - all our forwards, our mids - would like goals again. They were kicking lots of goals and that's probably dried up a little bit.
"But we didn't convert very well and we missed some opportunities. It had nothing to do with run or energy or skill.
"They've been getting opportunities but the connect between the midfielders and forwards hasn't been at the high level that we demand and require. That's been the focus."
Chris Mayne trained well at Fremantle Oval on Tuesday morning and looks set to return after missing the Gold Coast clash with illness.
Training Report: Focus on forwards
Zac Clarke and Paul Duffield were both dropped before the Suns clash, but they appear hard-pressed to return immediately.
Zac Dawson is back training with the main squad after surgery on his broken thumb, but he is wearing a plastic cast and was only gathering balls with one hand.
Michael Johnson and Alex Silvagni both appeared briefly and did some light running but they are still a long way from returning from their respective hamstring injuries.
Lyon confirmed that the Dockers had "significant interest" in Richmond defender Alex Rance before he re-signed with the Tigers but he did not elaborate any further.
