Ross Lyon has called for his troops to bring “fierce heat” into their clash with Geelong this Sunday at Simonds Stadium.
The senior coach took advantage of Geelong’s visit to WA in round 13, watching on as the Cats fell by 13 points to West Coast at Domain Stadium.
The Eagles laid 93 effective tackles in that contest and Lyon highlighted this pressure as a key to defeating Geelong.
In 2017, Fremantle have averaged 59.8 effective tackles per game, the fewest in the AFL.
“I went and watched the game, it was a really good opportunity,” Lyon said.
“What I took out was West Coast tackled really strongly.
“We all want to get caught up in tactics and that, (such as) do taggers work and all that stuff – but if the whole team’s not tackling and pressuring we know (other tactics) don’t (work), so the fundamentals are more important than any tactic at my end.
“We’ve got to bring (that pressure) against a quality team and every week the challenge is to bring a lot of tackling pressure.
“We want to bring an attitude to pressure the opposition, more than any tactic.”
Lyon highlighted that Fremantle’s fortunes this season has often been tied to their tackling pressure.
On average, Fremantle have attempted eight more tackles in games they have won versus games they have lost.
“We’ve looked at it and sometimes it’s just simple intent,” Lyon said.
“In that six week period we thought that we hit a strong baseline but then there’s our performance.
“You saw it with Geelong against Adelaide (in round 11) and then you see it with West Coast against Geelong (in round 13).
“AFL teams that are bringing that fierce heat tend to be in the game and we want to bring that fierce heat – that’s the challenge.”
