Lyon's harsh words to dumped Sylvia
Colin Sylvia needs to "bend" to the needs of Fremantle, not expect Fremantle to bend to his, coach Ross Lyon said yesterday as the Dockers wielded the axe after their shock loss to St Kilda.
Four players were dropped from the team that capitulated to the Saints on July 19.
Sylvia, ruckman Jon Griffin, forward Matt Taberner and midfielder Anthony Morabito made way for Aaron Sandilands, Stephen Hill, Garrick Ibbotson and Hayden Ballantyne for tonight's clash with Carlton at Patersons Stadium. Sylvia, lured west as a free agent on a three-year deal believed to be worth $1 million, needed to "go back and deliver actions that will build trust within the match committee that will select him and, more importantly, his teammates," Lyon said on Melbourne radio.
"He's played a certain way for a long time and he needs to shift, because we're not bending to Col.
"Col will bend to us. He knows that and he understands that."
Carlton coach Mick Malthouse warned his team would be out to spoil the party as Fremantle aim to bounce back from the St Kilda loss.
Malthouse said top teams that had shock defeats usually had to treat the performance as an abnormality and move on, but that did not mean the Blues would just lay down for them.
"Every so often a top side has an absolute shocker. I don't know how Ross has handled it and I don't want to know. I have been part of sides here many years ago now and at Collingwood in finals years and have had an absolute thumping. You have to treat it as an abnormality," Malthouse said.
The Blues expect a response from the Dockers, but are prepared for it.
"We played Geelong after they were beaten badly by Sydney and we expected that and we all but got there," Malthouse said.
"I don't think you have an automatic right to think that you have had a bad game so you are going to come out and just murder the side the next week. You have still got to do the hard work.
"We are here to spoil the party. We haven't come over here just to lay down because Fremantle got beaten by St Kilda last week."
Carlton made three changes to their team which beat North Melbourne last time out and retained former Subiaco defender Simon White amid news he had been charged with assault over a nightclub incident in May.
Veterans Andrew Carrazzo and Brock McLean were included with South Fremantle's Blaine Johnson for the suspended Mitch Robinson and Troy Menzel (knee) and Andrejs Everitt (knee).
Malthouse rated his team's round-18 win over North Melbourne as the club's most consistent effort of the year.
"I think we are playing better footy than we were last year and I say that because we played a lot of top sides last year and we struggled," Malthouse said.
"I think we have been far more competitive against some of the top sides this year.
"That is where I see the reflection more than the win-loss. I think we are playing OK footy.
"We know we have got to get better, but that game last week was done without Walker in the back line, we lost Everitt early and Menzel certainly wasn't at his best when he was injured."
