Nat Fyfe appeared on Fox Footy Live on Tuesday night for an extensive interview with Gerard Healy, Garry Lyon, Jonathan Brown and Nick Riewoldt.
Here are the key takeaways from the Freo captain’s interview.
On travelling to the Gold Coast hub
I’m looking forward to getting on the plane next Tuesday and heading up there. Now we’ve got some clarity around what (the next month) looks like, the guys are just keen to get into it and start playing a few games.
We’ve really encouraged the guys to go about their business as per usual. We’ve had a week of contact training, there’s real competitive juices starting to flow, our focus is on that first game against Brisbane in round two.
On potentially returning to play in WA after round five
We’re encouraging our guys to focus on what we know, which is this four week block. We’re told that we’re definitely going to be up there for four weeks.
We’re getting guys to bring along items with them that might make it as confortable and homely as it is usually for them up on the Gold Coast.
But worrying about all of the possibilities of the border, what that may mean, will they see their families after four weeks, will we have to stay over there even longer? We’ll cross those bridges when we get to them.
On taking the whole squad to the Gold Coast
We’ve decided that we’re going to take our entire playing list. We’re a bit thin on for resources so we couldn’t really leave a group back in Perth.
We see this as an opportunity to grow the connection between the whole group. Potentially we may look at separating out the 25 that are playing when we get close to games but at this stage, we’re taking everyone across and we’ve got two guys in rehab (Alex Pearce and Joel Hamling) that will be a part of that as well.
On whether families will travel
We’ve come to a conclusion around families going on the trip and at this stage, for the first four weeks, we’re going to keep it pretty business-like, mostly just the players and coaches.
As someone who’s not married and doesn’t have kids, it is hard for me to have a balanced, objective view on what it must be like for those guys who are leaving their families and kids behind. Speaking with ‘Sonny’ (Michael) Walters, David Mundy, Nathan Wilson and Taylin Duman, they are making some sacrifices, they will work with their families and keep in contact as best they can.
I’m sure there is a little bit of anxiousness, but overwhelmingly, there is a feeling of optimism and being excited to be back playing footy.
On getting away from footy at the hub
We’ve encouraged the guys that, if they want to bring a surf board or golf clubs, bring those things along. Hopefully, within the first week or two, those restrictions start to open up on players because the mental health of having those things accessible of pretty critical.
Clearly, I’ve got an agenda there! We are encouraging guys just to worry about what we know, prepare for footy and take the rest from there.
On how Fyfe will approach this period as captain
The last seven weeks have presented a great leadership opportunity. We’ve had to find new platforms to connect and communicate with our players.
We’ve seen real growth in some areas of leadership, guys like Alex Pearce and Reece Conca have really flourished in that environment. Clearly there’s been some great learning so far and the next four weeks, I look as another opportunity to grow my leadership and my connection with the younger players.
I think we’re in single rooms but there will be opportunities for us to have game nights and get to know each other a bit more.
On Jesse Hogan’s progress
Perhaps (the hub) it will be an environment where Jesse can start to feel more comfortable. He’s taken some great steps so far in terms of his training and preparation. He’s got a fair way to go but everything’s looking pretty positive at the moment. As a leadership group and a club, we’re right behind Jesse and walking him back to playing AFL footy.
On Freo’s game style in 2020
I hope that you’ll see an exciting brand of footy. We’ve been a team that’s been starved of scores for a number of years, that’s been the way we’ve played and, hopefully, that’s going to look slightly different. It’s going to take a number of weeks to fully implement that.
We’ve got some outside run and some tall forwards that we want to take advantage, we’ve seen at training that we’ve become a bit more of a direct flowing team and a balanced team on defence. Hopefully, it looks a little bit different to what it has in previous years.
On the shutdown period
I spent most of the seven weeks driving a road train up and down the highway for the old man and just trying to keep as fit as I could. I did about 15,000km, so I crossed (the equivalent of) Australia four times.
