Fremantle star Chris Mayne is renowned for his forward pressure in helping the team in attack, but despite training some of the pre-season in defence, he’s ready to do whatever is asked of him.

Mayne has never felt better heading into an AFL season and can’t wait for the matches to begin.

“It’s definitely been my best pre-season since I’ve been in the system,” he said.

“I think I’ve only missed one session and have been able to hit PB’s in my time trials.

“I’ve been able to put on some extra weight and lose some body fat, as well.

“Overall, the body is feeling really good, feeling really fit and it’s definitely a positive compared to last year where I was battling a fair bit into the pre-season and that kind of shown in my season.”

The 26-year-old has grown accustomed to helping Freo down back when called upon by senior coach Ross Lyon, but it’s all about developing a number of players to become more flexible in the positions they play.

“I think last year I played a couple of games in defence and that was due to the fact that we were missing a couple of back men at the time and someone had to go back there,” Mayne said.

“Up to Christmas I was training as a forward doing a lot of work there and probably just before Christmas we were spoken to by Ross and (development coach) Marc Webb just about working a bit more in defence as well to kind of add another challenge to my game and have another role.

“I’ve been able to work with Luke McPharlin, Michael Johnson, (Paul) Duffield, (Garrick) Ibbotson…all about positioning and how to go about being a defender…it’s been exciting.”

Mayne believes the added flexibility is only going to help Freo improve and match it with the competition’s best.

FLEXIBLE FREO

“Hopefully that’s going to help us grow as a club, having different players playing in different positions, a bit of versatility,” he said.

“When you look at the really good sides of the competition; Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney…they’ve got players that can play in different positions and it always throws a challenge throughout the game when you’ve got players and you expect them to play there and they’re playing somewhere else.

“A few of the players have really embraced the challenge that they’ve been set this pre-season and in particular (for me) being sent down back it’s been a challenge, but it’s been something that I’ve enjoyed.”

Mayne even had a match-up in the recent intra-club game against the club’s greatest player in captain Matthew Pavlich.

“I’ve played on some champion players like ‘Pav’ and some up-and-coming ones like ‘Tabs’ (Matt Taberner) and you kind of learn what they do as a forward,” he said.

“It gives you a bit more of an understanding of what the defenders go through and what more tricks you can have as a forward to get away.”

Mayne has enjoyed learning the defensive side of the game but at the end of the day just wants to play his role.

“If I can get on the end of some hard work from the mids, backs or other forwards to put some scoreboard pressure on would be great," he said.

“That’s my role in the team, being someone that can be a selfless team player and bring everyone into the game by numerous amounts of pressure, turning the ball over and then if it’s me it’s good, but if not, the team kicking goals is important.”