FREMANTLE coach Ross Lyon has questioned his own coaching group and the Dockers' pre-season program after lamenting his players' inability to execute their skills under pressure during Saturday night's loss to West Coast.
The Dockers have slumped to 0-3 for the first time under Lyon and are in danger of seeing the season slip away dramatically.
Lyon said the common theme in the Dockers' first three losses were poor skills and decision making coming out of defence, which was causing a heavy amount of turnovers and scores against.
The Dockers conceded 63 inside 50s on Saturday night and Lyon said 33 of them had come from turnovers in the defensive half.
"It's a bit of a common theme," Lyon said post-match.
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"We spoke as a group afterwards. We put it on the table that at the end of the day, as coaches, we take responsibility. Because we thought we delivered a football program that under pressure they'd be able to execute.
"Typically in my tenure at the Dockers, we feel we've been able to do that.
"Under pressure our players know what they need to do and were able to perform. At the minute, the program hasn't delivered them to be instinctive and make decisions to the level they need to.
WATCH: Ross Lyon's full post-match media conference
"It will be a simple review. We are just going to look at why we couldn't get the ball out of our defensive 50 and defensive mid without turning it over. That's where it really starts and finishes, and that's where the review will be.
"That's the issue."
The Dockers have worked tirelessly over the summer on their ball movement and skill execution in the back half but have not improved in that area.
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"Clearly somewhere in the line there's a disconnect between what we think we've taught them and should be able to do and the realities of what they're producing on game day," Lyon said.
"We can't roll on at 0-3. Hayden Crozier has played very well two weeks in a row now (in the WAFL). People who are performing underneath need to come in.
"And clearly we need better kickers, people who can execute under pressure and hit some targets because there are some terrible turnovers at the minute that are really costly."
Fremantle midfielder Lachie Neale told AFL.com.au that it was on the players to improve individually.
"It's almost on the individuals that are missing targets and not making the right decisions to get in and practise that at training and put an emphasis on skills at training," Neale said.
"It's not a quick fix.
"We had way too many turnovers there and just some poor decision making and some poor skill errors. So that really cost us. That's three weeks in a row basically that our skills haven't been good enough."
Lyon said if the losses continued to mount he would have to consider a shift in philosophy.
"I think the aim is to win enough games and play finals," Lyon said.
"That's our aim. I would've thought that's every club's aim.
"We were really optimistic. But the results at the minute, 0-3, talk to we need to improve our footy.
"I don't think you have to be a genius to work out if the ledger stays like this there's going to be paradigm shift in philosophy."
The task does not get any easier for the Dockers. They face North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium next Sunday and will be without skipper David Mundy (calf) and Aaron Sandilands (punctured lung).
