Fremantle’s defenders could be turning an injury headache into a selection headache for the coaches, with the whole defensive group standing up this pre-season after injuries to the club’s star backs.

Freo were missing arguably their best four defenders against West Coast in the Marsh Community Series on Saturday at HBF Arena, with Alex Pearce, Joel Hamling, Nathan Wilson and Luke Ryan all sitting out the one-point win.

Freo’s defenders conceded a total of 12 goals over the two games, with impressive performances from the likes of Griffin Logue as a key defender and Ethan Hughes as a roll off intercepting back.

Only Ryan is expected to be available for round one, but Hughes is hopeful Freo’s young backs can cover the absence of Pearce, Wilson and Hamling early in the season.

“If they’re putting the performance on the board that’s going to be big for us. We’ll end up with a lot of guys coming out of injuries and they’ll be pushing for their spot,” Hughes said.

“We all need to hit the training track hard in the next couple of weeks and keep that progression going.

“Saturday was a great effort from the boys to stick in there for four quarters and get the result by the end.

“It started from our talls down back, where they just locked down their opponents and the roll off players definitely did their role.

“The runners worked hard, so it was exactly what we wanted from our plan for the day.” 

While Logue would generally take the opposition’s third best forward in a full strength Freo line-up, Hughes said the 21-year-old had delivered as Fremantle’s key back in the past fortnight.

A week after kicking six goals against Essendon, West Coast’s Josh Kennedy was limited to four disposals and a goal while playing on Logue on Saturday.

“He was an absolute beast. He played his role for the team which is all we need from him and he’s executing that really well,” Hughes said.

“He played on Josh Kennedy, who is a high quality player, so it’s a little tick for Griffin’s book.

“Griffin knows he’s got those capabilities in his bag. He’ll look to build consistency over his whole season and hopefully we can get that over 22 games this year.”

After totaling nine marks and four spoils on Saturday, Hughes said he feels he’s building his ability to read the play. 

“I was starting to read it a bit better and that will build as the season goes on” Hughes said.

“You get used to the intensity and the pressure that’s coming at you. It was positive for me and I’ll look to build on that for the next couple of weeks.”