Fremantle has to do more to protect star midfielder Nat Fyfe when he's copping attention from taggers and opposition midfielders, coach Ross Lyon says.
 
Fyfe copped another close tag from Carlton's Simon White on Saturday night in the Freo Dockers' 42-point win over the Blues.
 
The Brownlow medal favourite was kept to just 23 possessions, his second lowest tally for the season after recording just 20 touches last week against Hawthorn.

Ross Lyon post-match Q & A: Round 16
 
Lyon said his team needed to get better at protecting Fyfe, in the manner that Geelong used to with Gary Ablett jnr.
 
"He got a close tag again tonight," Lyon said post-match.
 
"I thought he worked through it. We'll get better as a team supporting him. I thought it was OK. I think we need to do more.
 
"I think there's been some great teams that support (their stars). I thought Geelong in their period was super at supporting Ablett.
 
"It's like Ryan Crowley. He used to go to tag, but he used to come off black and blue.
 
"So if you're going to play on Nathan you should come off black and blue."
 
Blues coach John Barker said White did an outstanding job on Fyfe but noted that you can't beat Fremantle by simply shutting down its superstar.     
 
"(White) is one of those players when you give him a job he does everything he can to get it right," Barker said.
 
"He's got character and he's got a big body too, which we think helped him.
 
"He got a lot of help from his teammates and what you get to realise very quickly is against a team like Fremantle … you can't beat them by just stopping one player."
 
Fyfe was clearly impeded by the cork he copped from Hawthorn's Sam Mitchell last week, but Lyon said he was never any danger of missing the match.
 
"No one told me the cork was an issue," Lyon said.
 
"It was strapped. He took a while to get going during the week. He couldn't kick more than 30m for a fair bit, but he's pretty tough.
 
"People don't miss with corks these days unless they are severe."
 
Freo Dockers forward Hayden Ballantyne suffered a shoulder injury during the first quarter of the win over the Blues, and had the joint strapped and played the second term. The doctors cleared Ballantyne to continue in the second half but Lyon made the call to sub him out at half-time. He will have scans on Monday.
 
Ballantyne will have seven days to try and recover before a meeting with Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.

The Tigers inflicted the Freo Dockers' first defeat of the season in round 10 and Lyon said it is good to meet them again so soon after that loss.
 
"I think it's just quirks of the draw and I don't think it hurts us," Lyon said.  
 
"We get a day on them and it's exciting.
 
"Richmond is a really massive challenge at the MCG.
 
"They knocked us over here, so we understand what they bring to the table."