FREMANTLE is starting fresh for 2009 with a new-look playing list, fitness team, coaching staff and an approach that general manager of football operations Chris Bond is confident will work long-term.

Coach Mark Harvey has admitted that he saw glaring problems in his side's fitness and strength early last season and as a result, Fremantle has added Jason Weber and Chris Spinks to run its strength and conditioning program, Barry Mitchell and Todd Curley as midfield coaches and a raft of other improvements.

Bond believes all the areas that have been changed since the end of a disappointing 2008 season should set Fremantle up well for the future.

"Fitness was one particular area that we needed to improve on and we think we have done that with the personnel changes," Bond said.

“We have a new doctor on to help with our existing one, we've added a new physio, we have two coaches in the midfield area now and along with the shift to our list, they are all changes of equal importance as we move forward."

Coming into the 2008 season, Fremantle had the oldest playing list in the AFL but now will not have a player even nearing 30 heading into 2009. While Bond knows there are holes in the list needing to be filled, the focus is on building it with youth.

"What we've done with our list is make a significant shift in the age of it," he said.

"Our priority is to have young players on our list who can develop and be here for a long time. We think the players that we get with the early picks will be here for 10 years and we won't have a player on our list over 28 years of age. That's as big a shift in a footy club that has been seen in awhile."

Bond likes all the changes that have been made so far but the biggest will come on Saturday with the addition of seven new players via the NAB AFL Draft. Rather than expecting big things straight away in 2009 from them, though, Bond is banking on them having a long-term impact.

"Whether we go back a step or not will really depend on the other changes that we've made to the footy club. The biggest change has been on-field in regards to our players but we've made others as well. How fast they develop our players will determine how well we go," he said.

"To walk in and say that an 18-year-old will have a significant impact in 2009 is too hard. It's not a priority for us, the priority is for the player to be at this club for 10-12 years. You can't judge a draft until two or three years down the track. The young players that we bring in may play senior football next year but it's not the biggest priority for us."