Fremantle Dockers CEO Steve Rosich leaps to defend coach Ross Lyon

Fremantle chief executive Steve Rosich has flagged a review of the club’s 2018 injury track record and skill level in the wake of the horrid 133-point defeat by Geelong on Saturday.

After the club’s ninth loss by 50 points or more this year, Rosich:

Backed coach Ross Lyon, declaring him a key figure in the club’s four draft rebuild.
Accepted criticism and questioning of the club after the performance against the Cats, declaring it a disappointing loss.
Defended the re-signing of Hayden Ballantyne and Harley Bennell, with the likely signing of Aaron Sandilands to come this week.
Said the club would be reluctant to trade its top 10 draft pick from this year’s national draft but “you never say never”.
Said the club would make fewer than the 11 list changes it averaged in the past two seasons but would try to trade back into the second and third rounds of the draft and was assessing free agency and trade options.

“Clearly it was a disappointing game on Saturday after a promising first quarter and I am not surprised there are many questions being asked,” Rosich said.

“We don’t shy away from questions but the answer to the question with respect to Ross is yes (he is safe). He is contracted and a key part of driving our future performances.” The Dockers have missed a long list of experienced players for extended periods of the season. Veteran ruckman Sandilands has missed 10 games with calf problems, Nat Fyfe six with a hamstring injury, Stephen Hill eight with quad issues, Matt Taberner 13 with a foot problem while knee injuries have sidelined Connor Blakely (eight games) and Bradley Hill (12).

Joel Hamling (groin) missed four weeks and Griffin Logue (foot) and Bennell (calf) have not played at AFL level this year.

“One area we have already started looking at is our injury rates,” Rosich said.

“Anecdotally, although we accept a level of injury because we play a contact sport and that you are more susceptible with a young list, our injury rate was quite high and the unavailability of some quality players with our young list has hurt us. I have got no doubt we can improve on that area in 2019.”

PerthNow expects the number of list changes to be between six and eight with Michael Johnson, Danyle Pearce and Lee Spurr to retire.

Rosich was strong in his defence of the re-signings of Ballantyne and Bennell and the likely re-signing of Sandilands.

“The balanced list management view is that some of those senior players are valuable in contributing to the environment and contributing on the field. We are a young list so it is a balanced decision,” he said.

On Bennell he said: “It is really disappointing that he hasn’t been able to impact at AFL level. There is a feeling that playing, albeit not quite at the level to get back into the AFL but playing WAFL, along with a good pre-season, he can come to life next season and it is worth that exploration. It is a one-year opportunity for Harley and for the club to see if we can get an impact on the field for someone who is clearly a very talented AFL player.”

Rosich said people could criticise the Dockers not being in the second and third rounds of this year’s draft but added: “Nathan Wilson is effectively our second-round pick and we are delighted to have Nathan and we wouldn’t change that.

“Our third pick was tied up in the Lachie Weller trade for the No.2 (Andrew Brayshaw) and we are delighted to have Andrew at our club. We are keen to get back into the draft. We are advanced in our thinking and planning but we can’t execute that until we get closer to trade week.”

Rosich accepted criticism of the team’s skill level as “fair”.

“It has been a focus in the way that our coaching team has tried to develop a game plan and also with respect to our program. This year had extra elements that focused on touch, handball and kicking skills. It will be interesting to look at the assessment of that at season’s end to see what impact that has had.”