After taking part in a promising training session on Monday morning, Nat Fyfe said he is hopeful that Fremantle can challenge any team in 2019.

While the Fremantle captain wouldn’t get drawn into any discussions about Freo’s finals hopes, he remained buoyant about the club’s prospects.

“It (playing finals) is always on the agenda,” Fyfe said.

“I’m an eternal optimist but you’ve got no measuring stick at this stage of the pre-season.

“You might have a session like today where you move the ball really well and everyone feels great about themselves and you think that you’ll be hard to get beaten.

“But until we come up against an opposition side, we won’t really know where we’re sitting in the pecking order, but we’re always optimistic.”

No club in the AFL has recruited and drafted more players than Fremantle in the past three seasons, and Fyfe said there is a large focus on bringing the playing group together ahead of round one. 

“We’re implementing the game plan, getting fit – which is what every other team in the country is doing,” Fyfe said. 

“We’ve got a big role in trying to galvanise everyone, build relationships, that’s taking centre stage at the moment. 

“We have a number of on and off-field activities designed to get the guys to know each other on a deeper level and hopefully, that relationship creates a tangible advantage when we go out and play together.

“We’ve got guys all over the country that have represented other teams and have decided to come back and play for Fremantle, which is a great thing, and we’ve got another 60 odd days to get ready for round one and have us all gelling together.”

Fyfe added that he was pleased to see gun forward recruit Jesse Hogan commence training with the group in select drills.

“Jesse’s going well,” Fyfe said. 

“He’s started being drip fed into drills in the last couple of days and he will look to be in full training in the coming weeks.”