Ross Lyon has left no doubt about his commitment to Fremantle’s rebuild process, with the senior coach emphatic in his response to criticism of the club’s progress through its development phase.

There have been calls for sweeping changes in the wake of Fremantle’s record loss to Geelong last Saturday, however Lyon said he would not pay heed to some of the overreaction in the media.

“We know we won eight games last year by an average of eight points. This year we’ve won eight by an average of 28 points, but everyone’s focusing on the losses and the margins,” Lyon said. 

“(We’ve beaten) some pretty good teams and that’s when we had good availability.” 

Lyon said that he could have made changes on the field to mitigate some heavy losses but stressed the importance of allowing his young players to learn instead of simply shutting a game down.

“If you really want me to close it up and take away the space, and if my key indicator becomes percentage and points against, then I’ll start modelling to that,” Lyon said. 

“But we play an open game, expose everyone, give them opportunities to express themselves and take it from there.

“I haven’t closed them up, I can roll up four around the stoppage and congest it and play two behind the ball. I haven’t done that all year, contrary to fingernail deep analysis.”

Lyon said the development of the club’s top draft picks from 2017 had been one of the biggest positives from the season.

“Adam Cerra hadn’t played a full season in the past two years and we’ve got him to 21 games,” Lyon said.

“As well as Andrew Brayshaw, you’ve seen Brennan Cox and Luke Ryan.

“I’m a glass half full person, I’m really committed. I really want to go through the rebuild.”

Lyon said that the full club hierarchy was behind the direction Fremantle had undertaken.

“I’m here, I’m not going anywhere. The board have been incredibly supportive,” Lyon said.

“We had an innovation committee meeting (with three Fremantle board members) during the week that was scheduled for months and that was reported as a crisis meeting,” Lyon said.

“On the back of that I had a cup of coffee with (club president) Dale Alcock, (board member) Craig Carter and (CEO) Steve Rosich and they’ve been amazing.

“There’s no wobbling, you’ve just got to handle it and it’s how you respond and keep working, so it’s pretty simple from here for me.”

Lyon acknowledged the disappointment of Fremantle’s members and supporters following the loss to Geelong and said they entire club is working to bounce back.

“We’d like to earn some respect back,” Lyon said.

“No-one’s more invested than the coach, players and club executives.

“We exist to represent our members and the Docker community and clearly we let them down.”