Fremantle were given a taste of the potential of their new look forward line with key talls Matt Taberner and Jesse Hogan combining for five goals for team ‘purple’ in Freo’s intraclub match on Friday at Victor George Kailis Oval.
A 60-metre bomb by Brett Bewley just before the final siren secured the one-point victory for team ‘white’ but it was the efforts of the forwards for purple, which included Hogan, Taberner and Rory Lobb, that stole the show.
For the majority of the game, the teams featured the best forwards on purple against Fremantle’s best defenders for white.
It was Taberner who got off to a flyer with two goals in the opening term, coming via marks and goals from near the boundary.
Taberner finished the day with three goals while Hogan kicked two while pushing up the ground for periods in the middle.
At the other end, Hugh Dixon kept white’s score ticking over with three goals.
Ed Langdon added a pair for purple while new draftee Lachie Schultz kicked two and set up another two for white.
With Nat Fyfe out due to his AFLX commitments, Michael Walters and David Mundy provided their usual skill and leadership in the middle.
On the wings, Stefan Giro impressed in a good battle with Langdon, while the likes of Andrew Brayshaw, Adam Cerra and Tom North all showed signs of improvement ahead of their second seasons in the AFL system.
Sean Darcy shouldered the bulk of the ruck load for purple, going up against white’s Lloyd Meek, while Lobb provided occasional ruck support for purple.
A strong contested mark inside forward 50 highlighted Lobb’s efforts however the 205cm forward missed the set shot to go goalless for the day.
Brennan Cox fitted in well to his new defensive role, switching between teams white and purple for the day.
Luke Ryan showed how damaging he can be under the AFL’s new kick-in rules, finding targets well into the middle of the ground along the wing.
Sam Switkowski impressed the most from Freo’s small forwards, kicking one goal and playing a hand in several more.
New signing Travis Colyer also impressed and recovered well after taking a hit to the head from the football at close range and spending most of the second quarter off the ground.
Senior coach Ross Lyon said the hitout gave the team a boost heading into a four-day break for the players.
Following the break, Fremantle will ramp up their preparations for their opening JLT Community Series clash with Collingwood on Labour Day on Monday 4 March at Joondalup Arena.
“It was our first hitout, 90 minutes played and we had a couple of boys cramping at the end as a result of the heavier load during the week,” Lyon said.
“There was a bit to like, some of the things we were working on, trying to move the ball to our forwards a bit better so there were some pleasing results and we have plenty of work to go.
“We have a four-day break now but they’ll be staying focused on what they need to do as the season is coming around really quickly.”
