Dockers have bigger fish to fry
Ross Lyon says Fremantle are looking ahead to far bigger challenges, starting with Saturday night’s match against last year’s grand finalists Sydney after romping to their sixth successive western derby win at Domain Stadium yesterday.
The dismissal of West Coast came as counterpart Adam Simpson said he was not ready to write the Eagles’ season off despite conceding Jeremy McGovern would be sidelined with a knee injury in the fallout from the 30-point defeat.
West Coast were embarrassed in the opening term in slumping to their biggest quarter-time deficit in a derby before six goals in the final term, including four to Mark LeCras, saved them from humiliation, losing 17.9 (111) to 12.9 (81).
Fremantle were ruthless in kicking 9.2 to 0.4 in the opening quarter.
Lachie Neale amassed a career-high 42 disposals and booted three goals to overshadow Fremantle’s more celebrated midfielders and win his second Ross Glendinning Medal.
Stephen Hill also contributed three majors in a dominant first half.
Lyon said he wanted to see the spread of goal kickers continue against the Swans.
“Our stoppage work was strong, but there’s bigger challenges around with respect,” Lyon said.
“We play Sydney next week. They’ve played in two of the last three grand finals and they’re an elite midfield and they’re fiercely competitive.
“So with respect, the calibre goes up.”
McGovern was substituted out of the match at the 20-minute mark of the third quarter after hurting his left knee to add to West Coast’s horror day.
The 23-year-old limped from the ground midway through the second quarter after sliding on his knee as he tried to tackle Matt Taberner.
He returned for the start of the second half, but was clearly inconvenienced and forced to accept the substitute’s vest.
McGovern’s injury looms as a potential disaster given the season-ending injuries to key defenders Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown.
Simpson said McGovern would have scans today.
“The message we got (about sending him back on) was that it wasn’t going to get any worse,” he said.
“We thought we’d see if he could handle it, but we didn’t take the risk in the end.”
Such was Fremantle’s dominance in the first term that West Coast were thrashed 15-4 in the clearances and 20-8 in the inside-50 count.
It took until the eight-minute mark of the second term for the Eagles to kick their first goal.
Simpson said the performance was unacceptable.
“For a group that we’re trying to develop, it was really disappointing that we didn’t calm ourselves down and we just got annihilated in that first quarter,” he said.
The Dockers face a six-day break before hosting the Swans and will need to recover from a contest where the temperature peaked at 27C.
“(Given) it’s a six-day break at home, there’s no excuses for us,” Lyon said.
