The narrative around Alex Pearce’s pre-season, which has focused on his eventual rise to Fremantle captain, has glossed over one factor – his importance to Fremantle’s backline.

The 27-year-old provided an important reminder that he remains one of the toughest key defenders to play on on Thursday, limiting Charlie Dixon to a goal in Fremantle’s 31-point pre-season win against Port Adelaide.

The Power dominated the inside 50 count 58-45, but Pearce was crucial to Fremantle limiting Port to just 61 points.

It comes after the likes of Peter Wright, Harry McKay and Ben Brown were kept goalless when playing on Pearce in 2021.

Assistant Coach Jaymie Graham highlighted Pearce when praising the backline’s efforts.

“That is one area that Port got on top, they had 13 more inside 50s,” Graham said.

“The backs held up well, I think Alex Pearce had some critical contests on Charlie Dixon that he halved, and our high backs really worked back hard and supported those contests with their work rate.”

To Pearce, his clash with Dixon was a chance to get back into game mode ahead of round one against St Kilda.

“Today was good, I’ve played against (Dixon) a few times, he’s a really good player and really tough to play against,” Pearce said.

“It was nice to have a strong battle like that before round one to get the juices flowing and get back in the high intensity game mode.

“I’m super excited about round one, it’s been a good pre-season and a long preseason but I feel like we’re in a good spot.”

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