Fremantle captain Peter Bell said it doesn't matter how many goals Fremantle kicks in Saturday night's NAB Cup semi-final against Geelong, as long as they’re in front at the final siren.
Fremantle has kicked a total of one 'supergoal' and 33 goals in its two NAB Cup matches compared to Geelong (1.25) and the other semi-finalists Adelaide (4.23) and Melbourne (0.22). Of the two teams who make the Grand Final it’s the one with the most goals who will host the big game.
"I think it's fair to say the guys at Fremantle have decided they want to play an attacking brand of footy this year … so we would be hopefully kicking a pretty high score," Bell told a media conference at Telstra Dome.
"If that happens, that would be terrific, but our focus will be on beating Geelong by one point."
Fremantle hasn’t played at Telstra Dome since round eight last year but Bell said it’s a ground the players enjoy. In the past three years Fremantle has won three and lost four games at the Dome and are looking forward to having added game time there before the home and away season.
"The more you play at a ground, the more comfortable you are with it, but we're taking all challenges head-on," he said.
"I know our guys are comfortable playing at Telstra Dome and we are looking forward to it.”
Fremantle last played Geelong in round 10 of 2005 and stunned the Cats at Skilled Stadium to secure their first win at the ground and enhance their growing reputation as a tough competitor on the road.
While the contest ranks one of the clubs best performances of last season the lessons of that outing, according to Bell, have little to do with Saturday night's clash.
"We've got tremendous respect for Geelong. That was a terrific game for us, we were under a lot of pressure during that game and we went in with slightly different tactics than we normally would, and that might have taken Geelong by surprise a little bit," Bell said.
"But obviously there's a whole new set of rules (now) that we have to take into account, and it's a very quick game.
"In some aspects in that win back at Skilled Stadium we did hold the ball for a lot longer and really tried to control the momentum of the game with slower ball use and we all know that's not the case any more - you've got to kick it in six seconds or you're under a lot of pressure."
As for the bigger picture, Bell described the club's pre-season as "uneventful" and said that Freo was aiming for consistency in 2006.
But he declined to put a figure on how many wins the club was aiming for.
"In-house, we've got specific goals, but they will remain that, in-house. If you look too far ahead often it can come and bite you on the backside if your focus gets taken off the immediate … and the immediate this week is obviously Geelong."
Bell said a NAB Cup final at Subiaco, if it could be achieved, would be great for the club's members and supporters.
"We've got tremendously loyal supporters … terrific retention rates and we would like to reward them, but we obviously know that it's very tough and we'd like to reward them in the season proper as well."
