Changes made to Fremantle’s game plan during the pre-season are starting to click, according to forward Hayden Ballantyne.
 
Between rounds 11 and 13, Freo moved the ball efficiently through the midfield and posted an average score of 119, 53 points more than their tally across all other rounds.
 
“The three games where we won, we played pretty well,” he said.

“Port Adelaide isn’t a bad side and we played really well against them.

Sandilands getting closer
 
“We just need to do it on a consistent basis.”
 
Senior coach Ross Lyon told Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night that the club had targeted former Hawthorn premiership players David Hale and Brent Guerra – who joined the club’s coaching staff after the departures of Simon Lloyd and Brett Kirk last season – to “invigorate” its ball use.
 
And despite starting slowly, Lyon said the coaches were clear on where the side needed to improve.

“Thinking about it today, it’s really firmed my belief in what players need under pressure; the need to be on the one page, really flint-hard and working together,” he said.

Ross Lyon Q & A - On The Couch

“If you have to second-guess or have to think about an AFL field, it’s too late and the teams that don’t think about it get away from you.
 
“I think that’s what’s happened to us a little bit and I think our players and coaches would acknowledge that as well.”
 
Fremantle faces the in-form Demons in Darwin on Saturday night, a match Ballantyne said the side would use to improve on the loss against Collingwood a fortnight ago.

“We’ll just build on what we’ve been trying to build on for the whole year which is just to improve our ball movement and give great effort… which dropped off against Collingwood,” he said.