Fremantle will embark on a one-week training camp to the Gold Coast in early December in preparation for the 2019 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.

The players will depart for the camp on Sunday 9 December, with the training camp taking place at the Southport Sharks Football Club and Bond University, utilising a strength and conditioning facility also used by the Australian Wallabies.

CEO Steve Rosich announced the camp on Thursday, highlighting the importance of the trip as Fremantle continue to bring a number of young and new players into the club.

“The clear focus is on game plan and education,” Rosich said.

“We’ve got a very young squad. We’ve added some experience and talent, albeit they’re all relatively young, via the trade period recently. 

“We’ve going to add another four draftees (at the National Draft). Effectively, we’ve only got 15 or 16 players on our list now who were on our list in 2016.

“As planned, it’s a really new group, so it’s important for our coaching team to instil that game plan.

“They’ve decided the best way to do that is that one-week camp in December.”

Despite seeing a number of experienced hands leave the club following the 2018 season, Rosich believes Fremantle will start to see the benefits from their investment in youth.

Through the club’s three retirees in Michael Johnson, Danyle Pearce and Lee Spurr, Fremantle have lost a combined 622 games of experience.

“We’ve had the three retirees and by definition they’ve played a lot of footy,” Rosich said.

“That was planned in our list management model. What’s also planned is bringing in fresh young talent from other clubs.

“We’ve got the four players who have joined us this year in Jesse Hogan, Rory Lobb, Reece Conca and Travis Colyer.

“We’ve probably exceeded our expectations in the trade period to bring in all four in the one go. 

“That counterbalances (the retirements) nicely, we think they fit into that age group bracket between 23 and 27, so they have a lot of footy ahead of them and they also add experience to a list, which on balance, is still very young.

“We think we’re moving in the right direction.”