Fremantle plays a rising Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium tonight minus a great deal of talent.

The forward line is missing the champion qualities of Matthew Pavlich.

Kepler Bradley is out, too, robbing us of 198cm and 100kg. It’d be nice if Zac Clarke was ready to go, but he’ll need a game in the WAFL.

Our midfield won’t have two of the league’s brightest stars in Nat Fyfe and Stephen Hill.

And there literally isn’t a bigger out in the AFL than Aaron Sandilands.

It sounds like Fremantle heads to the Gold Coast in a precarious state.

But there are some things that won’t be absent at Metricon Stadium tonight: structure and effort.

Ross Lyon’s renowned team defence is just that – team. There’s no relying on just one player to execute.

Whether it’s Nat Fyfe or Cam Sutcliffe, Kepler Bradley or Jack Hannath, all players have had every aspect of the game plan drilled into them repeatedly.

With the return of Paul Duffield, Freo’s miserly back six, which ranked second in the AFL for points conceded last year, is still intact.

The midfield, led by Jon Griffin in the ruck, and David Mundy and Michael Barlow at the fall, still contains ample speed and talent.

Then there’s the tagging factor Ryan Crowley brings to every game, the ability to negate a star opposition midfielder.

Up forward, Chris Mayne, Michael Walters and Hayden Ballantyne are as good as it gets at ground level in front of the big sticks.

Essentially, when talking about a Lyon-coached side, the effort and strategy required to win is the same regardless of who the 22 are that represent the club.