Freo has been widely criticised for selecting a team with no players under 22, and featuring 10 older players recycled from other sides.
While he denied that Fremantle had lost the game against youthful Collingwood at the selection table – the Pies ran a tiring Freo unit off their feet in the last term to win by 26 points – German admitted that this week could bring the selection of some fresh young faces.
The match committee’s decision on player movement has been made easier with Dean Solomon being offered a week for a hit on Shane Wakelin, and Heath Black struggling after being poked in the eye and unlikely to play.
German denied that team selection was the cause of the loss.
“No, not at all,” he said.
“We had some opportunities in the third quarter to take a two or three goal lead and we didn’t take them.
“The fact (is) that we probably just got overrun a little bit at the end of the game, and I don’t think that’s anything to do with selection or anything like that.
“They rotated pretty heavily and they got us with some run, but I think that our turnovers cost us again in terms of actually chasing a lot more again.
“That’s one of the reasons why we fell away in the last quarter, but that had nothing to do with selection.
“I don’t think any of the senior players really let us down – there’s certainly some issues we’ve got to address, but I don’t think that they were the players that ultimately let us down.
“I think it was more of a whole team thing. That, that from a match committee point of view, we were disappointed in.”
Younger players Rhys Palmer, Chris Mayne, Clayton Hinkley and Garrick Ibbotson are all pushing hard for a game.
“I think Ibbotson’s in front of all three of them – he was very, very close to getting a game on the weekend, and I think you’ll see him in the side sooner rather than later.
“I think you’ll see some changes – whether that’s personnel or positioning remains to be seen, but I think you’ll see a different sort of setup than we had had on the weekend.”
