FREMANTLE captain Matthew Pavlich has thrown his support behind Shaun McManus.

Pavlich, who has had a solid season up forward and in spending more time on the ball, has stood up in strong defence of veteran McManus.

McManus had just five possessions in Sunday's 22-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, but Pavlich believes calls for his retirement are premature.

"Shaun's game time was down for whatever reason, so that didn’t allow him to have the impact that he would have desired. He's going fine, though, he's part of our leadership group and exudes an exciting and positive manner around the group," Pavlich said.

"It's not up to me or anyone at the club to speculate about his career or position in the team, but what I will say is that he's part of our best 22 and he has a huge part to play in the rest of our season."

Pavlich is enjoying his different role in an attempt to improve Fremantle's clearances and is hoping to not see any kick of his hit the post again this season. He is confident that his team is still working hard as well and that things will improve from the 1-10 start shortly.

"My schedule is to have a good goalkicking practice routine every week and that hasn’t changed. If I tried to hit the post as much as I have this year I wouldn’t be able to. There must be a magnet in the ball in the last quarters to take it there," he said.

"If I keep doing my practice and preparation along with all the other guys in the team, we will get this thing right. There's only so much talking and planning that you can do about it, it's the actions on the field that matter and that's what we are focused on.

"Five to 10 minutes of football is what has been hurting us over this eight-game losing streak, and it was the same yesterday."