The 20-year-old collected 27 possessions playing on the wing and across half-back in the best of his four games, three of which have come this season.
Ibbotson showed why he is considered part of a young and exciting group of Dockers players with a good long goal in the second quarter that helped establish a 39-point lead over the competition's best team.
"I am happy with my game, but it would have been a lot better if we won. A win would have been great for our confidence as a club, but I'm happy with how I went. It's only my fourth game, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but I'd say it was my best performance," Ibbotson said.
"We want to do our part for the team. We are young, but we go into each game looking at how we can help the team play at its best, rather than filling in the numbers. We want to be making an impact at the same time as learning."
Ibbotson, like the rest of his players and coach, was shattered to dominate the reigning premiers for most of the game and lose, but takes confidence from the performance.
"We would have liked to win obviously, but we do take a fair bit of confidence out of getting so close to Geelong," he said.
"They are last year's premiers and you can't afford any of those lapses because they will hurt us, as they did. That's something we have to work on as a club, but as a whole group we are starting to play better football."
Ibbotson was very much a long-term project when Fremantle drafted him with pick 26 in 2005. He only managed four WAFL league matches with East Fremantle in 2006, but cemented a spot last year, averaging 17 possessions in his 20 games.
He has shown more leadership and maturity with the Sharks this season so far and that, along with more belief from the Fremantle coaching staff, is giving him more confidence at AFL level.
"It does help having the coaching staff show a bit more faith in me and each week I'm learning something new from playing on different players each week," he said.
"I certainly learned that Geelong is a very good side and you can't afford any lapses against them, that's the biggest thing I take out of the game. Even though we shut down Bartel and Ablett, they had other guys step up and that's why they are a great side."
At East Fremantle, Ibbotson developed alongside fellow AFL footballers Rhys Palmer and Harry Taylor -- the only problem was that Taylor was plays for Geelong and took the match-saving mark in the dying seconds.
"I went and saw Harry after the game and couldn’t believe it was him of all people that took that mark. I'm good mates with him and it was heartbreaking. It's fantastic to see him get the chance to play AFL footy, though. The way he goes about his footy is second to none. He takes a lot of pride in his preparation and the results show."
The one point loss to Geelong hasn’t been the only heartbreaker for Ibbotson of late. He played in the Adelaide loss where Fremantle got close last week, and the week before played in the East Fremantle side that lost to Peel Thunder by one point despite being dominant all day.
But despite the recent disappointments, Ibbotson is confident of playing in a win next week against Melbourne.
"It has been tough the last few weeks, but we go into playing Melbourne full of confidence and hopefully can get a win on the board," he said.
"It clearly isn’t the start to the season we wanted, but we will just keep chipping away. We have Melbourne next week, will look to win a game at a time and work our way back into the mix."
