Fremantle senior coach Ross Lyon has opened up on Fremantle’s aims for the rest of the 2017 season, saying the priority is in the development of their younger players.

Despite losing their past three games, Fremantle remain within percentage of the top eight but face a difficult test to start the second half of the season with an away trip to Geelong on Sunday.

“Some teams come off the break well, some teams struggle,” Lyon said.

“We certainly played a good period where we fought and all of our senior players stood up and led our young players really well.” 

“We thought we made some ground and played some good football, just when you think you’re up and going we fell away against quality in Adelaide.

“Against Collingwood we were disappointed but probably fought on and maybe could have snatched it and against Brisbane we were really disappointed. 

“Is that fatigue and mental fatigue and our senior players carrying a bigger load than they’re used to because the spread of performance? Maybe, but I’m not too sure.”

While Fremantle remains in a battle for a finals berth, Lyon stressed that the main aim of the season was to blood their younger players.

Freo has fielded four debutants in 2017 in Griffin Logue, Harley Balic, Brennan Cox and Luke Ryan.

At WAFL level, Sean Darcy has impressed and is pushing for selection while Ryan Nyhuis was recently elevated to the senior list and is also a chance to be selected in the second half of the season.

“We don’t want to get caught up in win-losses, we want to focus on education and development and progressing the list,” Lyon said.

“We feel we did that (list progression) against Brisbane and we’ll do that again this week and we’ll continue in that vein.

“The bigger picture for us is not (about) fatigue and the break. It really is about the path we’re on, that we’re all committed to from the president, CEO and myself.

“We aim to win every week but what is really important is that development and learning.

“The break probably came at a bad time as we needed to learn and get the feedback from the Brisbane game.

“What the break gave us was a bit more time to cool down and say that it was disappointing, but we’re in an education phase and let’s get the leanings right this week and take it to Geelong.”