Senior coach Ross Lyon has compared Fremantle’s current playing list to when he arrived at Freo ahead of the 2012 season, saying he can see the current group of players determining the future of the club.

Lyon believes Fremantle have established a list capable of growing and competing into the future, highlighting the promising signs coming out of Freo’s pre-season camp before the Christmas break.

“We’re excited about the summer we’ve had but there are 18 AFL clubs standing up saying they’re excited,” Lyon said.

“We can take it back to the training camp on the Gold Coast. We rolled out the game plan, made modifications then and we had real clarity from that.

“We’ve had 31 players come to the club in the past three years which was significant but when I first came to the Dockers, I think there were 30 to 31, about the same number had come in the past three years.

“I remember speaking to the players back then, you determine the future of the club and we’ve had that discussion now and the players have really embraced that.

“There will be additions that come and go but basically this is the core group that will determine our future and the immediate future of the club.”

Lyon said that there will be no easy places up for grabs in Fremantle’s starting 22 come round one, making the club’s upcoming two games in the JLT Community Series vital to establish who will make the cut.

The series kicks off for Fremantle on Monday’s Labour Day public holiday against Collingwood at Joondalup Arena.

“There’s a bit of unknown and some performances to go on the board but I think after the two JLT games, we’ll be able to really pencil in 18 of the 22 players because of their strong performances,” Lyon said.

Lyon believes this competitive pressure is building among Fremantle’s key position players.

“Matt Taberner was exciting last year until he got hurt, Brennan Cox is also incredibly exciting and Griffin Logue has had a full summer,” Lyon said.

“There hasn’t been a lot of competition through the spine in those big key positions but now, absolutely the whips are cracking in there.

“As a match committee, we haven’t had to make many hard decisions in those areas for a long time but now there’s some really tough decisions to make.

“We’ll need to make some choices, where a person who has had a strong summer and a quality pre-season may not play round one. Previously that hasn’t been the case.

“The ability to (choose from) Cam McCarthy, Cox, Taberner, Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb (up forward) is something a bit different for us.

Lyon added that Fremantle is enjoying having a ‘plethora’ of small forward options.

“Hayden Ballantyne kicked four in his last game (in round 23 against Collingwood) and he should have kicked six. He’s had a really good summer,” Lyon said.

“We’ve got Sam Switkowski and Bailey Banfield, and Brandon Matera has taken his fitness to a really high level and is running and working incredibly hard.”

Fremantle's JLT1 clash against Collingwood will commence at 3.40pm at Joondalup Arena. Fremantle reserved seat members can get free entry with their membership cards, subject to capacity.