PETER Bell heads a list of handy inclusions for Fremantle's NAB Challenge game this Saturday night as coach Mark Harvey looks to fine-tune his team before round one.
Now that the Dockers are out of the NAB Cup after losing to Adelaide, Harvey will be making changes for the match against North Melbourne before playing close to his best side against Port Adelaide the following week.
Bell, Rob Warnock and Heath Black are definite starters this week, while captain Matthew Pavlich, Jeff Farmer, Aaron Sandilands and first-round draft pick Rhys Palmer will be among those rested.
Harvey is keen to see how Bell performs as he heads into a season where he will be living in Geraldton and travelling to play with the Dockers.
"[Bell] will play and I'll give him anywhere between two and three quarters. You never know how a guy's match fitness is until he gets out there to play, so we are about to find out where he's at," Harvey said.
"It will be interesting to see how he goes, but I don’t expect much from his first pre-season game. Everything is on track with him, though."
The Dockers will rest players that have played a lot of minutes already, including Palmer, who will fight for a spot in the team when he plays the final pre-season game.
"The aim is to get match fit for round one. We've had some guys that have played all three games, including the South African game, so some of those will miss this week if their form is up to scratch. We are still looking for different angles in our side and structure, but we have to settle our side down at some point," he said.
"Rhys has been up for a month really, he got tackled six or seven times and found out about league football, which is good. He has shown some really good signs during the latter periods of games. He will play [against] Port Adelaide and how he goes there will determine if he plays round one."
Warnock will replace Sandilands this week in the ruck after playing half a game for West Perth last weekend, however Harvey is looking forward to seeing how both work together against Port Adelaide.
"Warnock has played half a game of an intra-club WAFL match, but he will play this week to see where he's at. He and Sandilands can be a deadly combination, particularly if they can have an impact up-forward," he said.
"A lot of sides have one key ruckman and a backup, but hopefully we can bring on Rob in the second half of the quarter and keep our dominance going. The way Rob came on last year was exceptional and he now has to improve his game to go ahead. Hopefully both those guys cause a lot of sides trouble this season."
It is another scorching hot week in Perth, but the Dockers players shouldn’t expect any let up in training intensity from their coach.
"We will play and train to get as much match fitness as we can before round one. We like our players to train in heat, so we won't let up and we think we can get an advantage from it."
