Top 10 selection Liam Henry could make a dream debut in Sir Doug Nicholls Round with senior coach Justin Longmuir saying the exciting forward could debut within the next two weeks.
Fremantle play Sydney on Saturday 22 August and will wear their Indigenous jumper for what could be the debut of Freo’s next Indigenous star.
Longmuir said Fremantle had been taking a conservative approach with Henry.
“We’ve been pretty mindful to be careful with Liam, he’s come off a pretty serious injury last year (in school football),” Longmuir told ABC radio.
“All of this pre-season and his work to date has been around getting his body up to AFL level and his fitness levels up to AFL level.
“The last three or four weeks, we’ve managed to get some footy into him but it’s been pretty limited, the amount of footy we’re playing at the reserves level at the moment.
“Having said that, he’s really close, whether it’s next week or the next few weeks, we’ve really seen a lift in his intensity, especially defensively.
“He’s always going to have the offensive flair but we really want to see him upskill himself in the defensive system we’re trying to implement.
“We’ve seen some positive signs in the past couple of weeks so expect to see Liam in the next fortnight.”
Longmuir also spoke about a potential switch to the backline for key forward Jesse Hogan, who played down back in a scratch match against Hawthorn on Monday.
“That’s the plan at this stage (Hogan playing in defence), he played there in the reserves today,” Longmuir said.
“He’s indicated (he’d like to) and we’d like him to go back. We’re clearly undersized down there at the moment and having someone of his stature and his experience down there would be beneficial to our team.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time and I can’t put a number of weeks on it.
“It will take time for him to upskill himself as a defender, he hasn’t played any football at AFL level in the backline, he has payed a bit of junior footy down there.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time and we’ll just have to wait and see how the cards fall.”
JL: Henry close and a new role for Hogan?
See when Liam Henry could debut for Freo