Defender Luke McPharlin said Freo’s 68-point win over Melbourne was gutsy, after losing two players to injury in the first half.
 
Michael Walters was subbed off in the second quarter with concussion, just a few minutes later captain Mathew Pavlich copped an accidental bump after a mark and did not return to the field.

Goals galore, as midfield makes mark on scoreboard
 
McPharlin, who racked up 21 disposals, 10 marks and held young Melbourne forward Jesse Hogan to just one goal, told Fox Footy it was a dominant win.
 
“We knew we had to dig in, in the second half, knowing we’d lost a couple of our forwards,” he said.
 
“We only had two on the bench, so it was a gutsy win.
 
McPharlin said Melbourne were a different prospect this year, under the guidance of premiership coach Paul Roos.
 
“We knew they were a different Melbourne to last year,” he said.
 
“We knew they’d come hard at us but we were able to come away with a dominant performance.”
 
McPharlin said it was a team effort, which kept Hogan to just one major.
 
“He was genuine target for the day,” he said.
 
“I had some help with us rolling our defence.”