FREMANTLE young gun Andrew Brayshaw understands fans' frustration after an underwhelming performance and late capitulation against battling Gold Coast cost the Dockers a 2-0 start to the season.
After smashing North Melbourne by 82 points in round one, the Dockers were fancied to take care of the wooden spoon favourites, but produced none of the free-flowing and attacking football which overwhelmed the Roos.
The Dockers piled up 21 goals against North, but managed just eight majors at Metricon Stadium in a three-point loss.
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"Yeah, definitely, I can understand their (fans') frustration," Brayshaw said.
"We've gone out and we've lost a game of footy and we didn’t score that well.
"I think everyone's frustrated.
"We're really confident that we can take a few things out of the game and still from round one and front up a really good effort this weekend."
Despite battling to hit the scoreboard, Ross Lyon's outfit still led Gold Coast by 17 points midway through the final term, before the wayward Suns finally corrected their radar in front of goal and stormed home to notch a team-lifting victory.
"It was really deflating. It was probably one of the first really close games that I've been a part of that we've lost for Freo, so it really hurt," Brayshaw said.
"Especially we thought that we could really win and the fourth quarter we were up by a bit, and we just really needed to control the footy a little bit more.
"But, yeah, it hurt. I remember Reece Conca said as we were walking off 'just remember this moment boys, it's going to hurt but it's going to make us better'.
"We're going to learn from it and come out this weekend for the Purple Haze round, make a few improvements and hopefully get the win against St Kilda."
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Brayshaw shared midfield time with prized forward recruit Jesse Hogan on Sunday, and expected the former Demon to continue pushing up the ground after picking up 21 touches, but going goalless, on his club debut.
"Jesse's a player that, although yes he's a key forward, he can come through the midfield and really have an impact, which he did on the weekend," Brayshaw said.
"I think it's just growing him as a player and Ross is trying to do that with a lot of people."
Brayshaw laid 10 tackles against the Suns and has shown no mental demons attacking the contest after coming back from his broken jaw, believing he is "attacking it harder this year".
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The 19-year-old was speaking on Monday from Perth Children's Hospital ahead of Freo's 17th annual Starlight Purple Haze Game.
The Dockers have raised more than $1.4m since the initiative's inception and will invite seriously ill children for inner sanctum experiences in the build-up to Sunday's clash.
"Obviously we lost on the weekend and you're feeling pretty flat and you get on the plane home and it's all you can think about," Brayshaw said.
"Then you come to a place like this and see kids going through some really hard times and it definitely puts things in perspective."
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