Fast Freo the way to go
A concerted effort to move the ball quicker against Geelong helped Fremantle produce some of their best football of 2014, according to Dockers defender Michael Johnson.
Johnson said he and his teammates identified the fact they were getting bogged down in the wake of their round-eight loss to Port Adelaide.
"We just felt we were going a little bit too slow and you would have seen on the weekend we took the game on a little bit more and it actually came off for us," Johnson said.
"When we're playing our best footy we are going real quick and catching the opposition out."
The Dockers employed a daring attitude when they thrashed Collingwood in round one, but reached 90 points in only one of their next seven games before booting 13.18 (96) against the fourth-placed Cats on Saturday night.
Johnson said it was vital they continued to play that way and improve on it further when they take on the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium in round 11 after the bye this weekend.
The 2013 All-Australian denied that the team would be getting ahead of itself, despite going in as favourites.
"We played good footy on the weekend, but we have just got to keep on improving and we know that opposition teams will want to do their best to stop us," he said.
"We know outside of the walls of Fremantle the media and supporters will talk about it for sure, but we'll take it a week at a time."
Ruckman Zac Clarke will be free to play the Bulldogs if he accepts a reprimand offered to him by the match review panel for an elbow to the head of Geelong star Steve Johnson.
Fremantle defender Luke McPharlin (quad) is hopeful of returning after the break after missing the past two games.
"He frees me up a bit more when he's out there," Johnson said. "He's a great leader so he's the one that controls the back line and we feed off him."
Johnson spoke about the bond among Fremantle's eight Aboriginal players when he launched the club's jumper for the indigenous-themed round against the Bulldogs.
It is the same design as the jumper worn for the first time last season but this time is the predominantly white away strip.
Johnson said it would be an honour to wear the jumper, with his own stepdad one of the Stolen Generation.
