HAVING relinquished three-quarter-time leads in their last three defeats, Fremantle assistant coach Chris Scott said his players must “stand up and take the pressure” in their Telstra Dome meeting with Carlton on Saturday.
Scott was speaking from Princes Park at the club's final training session ahead of the round-nine clash against the Blues.
“Obviously if they’re [the players] in that situation again, they’re going to have to stand up and take the pressure,” he said.
“We’re confident that we’ve got good people doing the very best they can to prepare our players. The scoreboard has been a problem in the last quarter, whether that’s fitness or other areas we’re not completely sure, we’ve got some ideas and we’ve worked on those. But it’s not really something I want to talk about here.”
Despite training, quite literally, in enemy territory, Scott wasn't concerned about scouts from other clubs gleaning anything from the session.
“We normally train here. I suppose it’s a little bit in their faces… in reality you tend not to get too much from the last session of the week, it’s really just a bit of a kick around.”
Former Magpie Chris Tarrant kicked four goals in the three-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in round eight and Scott said it’s vital the 27-year-old continues his good form.
“Chris Tarrant was in some really good form last week and we were really excited about that because, for our forward line to work as effectively as we’d like, we need him to play well.”
The Blues will be without ruckman Cameron Cloke due to injury but Scott refused to say that Freo’s ruck division, which boasts the tallest man in the competition in Aaron Sandliands, is at a definite advantage.
“It’s fair to say that with Aaron’s clear height and strength advantage that we should have an advantage in the hit outs but Carlton’s midfield is very good and they’ve got some exceptional players in there," he said.
"Unfortunately the correlation between the hit-outs and the clearances hasn’t been a positive one for us.”