And the message is simple – find some extra aggression or find another home.
Hasleby, now 26 and enjoying his best pre-season in three years, believes his team was manhandled at times last year, but a new emphasis on aggression is likely to see a far tougher Freo line-up this season.
“Definitely at times during games when we were under the pump a few of us turned it up a few times,” Hasleby told afl.com.au during the club’s community camp in Potchefstroom.
“So you know it’s just a consistent theme throughout the club that it won’t be tolerated and you’ve got to be a hard player.”
Fremantle’s AFL Community Camp in South Africa is giving players a better chance to get to know their new coaches.
Harvey took over the senior role at Freo from Chris Connolly late last year, and in the off-season has assembled a bunch of assistants he hopes will help him instill the kind of philosophies he wants his side to abide by in coming years.
Some have jokingly labelled Harvey’s team the Fremantle Bombers, given the addition of Dean Wallis to the coaching panel, as well as Kepler Bradley and Mark Johnson to the playing list.
That trio joins Harvey, Dean Solomon and football manager Robert Shaw as former Bombers now proud to drop anchor at Fremantle.
“Obviously when you come in as a coach you like to bring in people that you trust, and he trusts in the people that he’s brought,” Hasleby said. “Also there was certainly a hardness factor about all of them.”
And while rival AFL clubs can expect to know they’ve played a game after facing Freo, Hasleby said a new game plan wasn’t likely to deter the neutral footy fan who might expect an in-tight, physical slog.
“Obviously Mark was a pretty hard and tough footballer so he’s a no-nonsense sort of coach, but he’s brought a pretty exciting brand of footy,” Hasleby said.
“We want to take the game on, take the ball through the corridor and try to kick some winning scores.
“Obviously we were third in the comp last year for points scored … we’ve got a forward line consisting of Tarrant, Pavlich, Farmer, Solomon and a few others and if we can get the ball in there 55 times [a match] we’ll win more of our games [than we’ll lose].”
After under-achieving last year and missing the finals, Hasleby has likened Fremantle to the current AFL premiers as they were 12 months ago, saying 2007’s poor result might have been the season his side had to have.
“We like to consider ourselves a bit like Geelong were last year where they had a disappointing year and sometimes you need them just to get the group focused and get everybody back on the same page and trying their hardest,” he said.
