FREMANTLE defender Luke McPharlin believes he will be fine to take his place in the Dockers' first ever Grand Final despite spending more time on the interchange than usual during the preliminary final win over the Sydney Swans.

McPharlin missed eight weeks after he tore his calf in round 15 against St Kilda before returning to the line up for the qualifying final against Geelong.

The 2012 All Australian defender appeared to be bothered by discomfort against the Swans in the warm-up and throughout the game but he says he is fine.

"I’ve pulled up well," McPharlin said.

"I came off a little bit more in the game than I normally would typically for a game given the way Sydney were structuring up.

"They weren’t playing three legitimate talls. They were playing two, sometimes one, so we had an opportunity for some of the tall defenders -myself, Michael Johnson, Zac Dawson - to come off a little bit more than we normally would and get a little bit of treatment on the sides.

"So yeah, no issues."

The 31-year-old hardly kicked a ball in the warm-up against the Swans, prompting theories that he was playing with a significant injury but he quashed those rumours on Sunday morning.

"No, I was OK," McPharlin said.

"Fairly typical, I'm a bit, I guess, casual in a warm-up sense.

"I take a bit of time to get going. But yeah, no concerns at all."

Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich revealed he was fairly sore on Sunday morning but that it was nothing unusual.

"My daughter woke me up, so I bounced out to go and grab her, and then realised I was a bit sore.??

"But [I'm] really happy overall with how I've pulled up over the last few weeks."

All Australian defender Johnson also suffered calf-tightness throughout the night but said after the match that he would be doing everything possible to recover for next Saturday's decider.

Coach Ross Lyon declared a clean bill of health for his players after Saturday night's win, but clearly a number of players will be need to managed during the week.

Pavlich says that the soreness among the players dissipated pretty quickly when they gathered for recovery Sunday morning as they began to realise what they had achieved.

"Clearly the guys are buoyant and happy to be in this morning," he said.

"It isn't a bad place to be recovery wise on a Sunday leading into a Grand Final."


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