Senior Coach Mark Harvey suggested the players to miss would most likely be from the party that toured South Africa earlier in the month and then played on the weekend, saying that he wants to ensure all players are fully revitalised and prepared for the season proper.
Chris Mayne will come into the side after sitting out of Fremantle’s 44 point win over the Eagles and is a strong chance to feature in the club’s rotating midfield. Sixteen players had roles in the centre for Fremantle at the weekend and it is something Mark will experiment with more over the pre-season to see which players will be able to offer solid contributions when moved to the midfield. The experimentation will be of added benefit following Paul Hasleby’s unavailability for the 2008 season following his knee reconstruction surgery yesterday morning.
Mark visited Paul in hospital yesterday morning following his surgery and said the midfielder was in good spirits. Despite being unavailable in a playing capacity this season, Paul will assist midfield coach Peter German throughout the year to help the team continue its improvements around stoppages and clearances.
“Obviously Paul had set himself for a big season and the way he was playing in the game would have suggested he was in for a big season,” Mark said.
“The group understands now that unfortunately you will lose a team mate every now and then and its about how we cover that loss now. We can’t harp on it, what we’ve got to do is comfort Paul and get him through the series of things that will go through his mind at the moment.
“I think he was excited by how hard he trained and then how well he was playing. That’s the formula and he will get back to that.
“Make no mistake about Paul Hasleby he will be back.”
Regardless of who lines up for Fremantle this Sunday, Mark said the players were keen to keep their good record in Adelaide in tact.
“Adelaide are obviously very fit this time of year, as they always are and they wholloped Collingwood a couple of weeks ago,” Mark said.
“They have had an extra week’s break than us so we will see what we can do.”
Following the club’s strong showing against West Coast Mark said he was excited with the brand of football the team played on the night and also against Carlton in Pretoria. But while there were encouraging signs he was not prepared to take the weekend’s result as a true indicator of how the season will pan out.
“West Coast clearly had six to 10 players out of their side that would normally start and you have to weigh that up,” he said.
“But yes I was (excited) without getting overconfident about any situation.
“The motivation is for the players to rehearse what we have practiced, to understand how to handle pressure in all sorts of ways and then to apply a relentless outlook on the way they play.”
