Fyfe enjoying return to school

Updated March 12, 2012 17:38:11

Nat Fyfe says he feels like a school kid again as Fremantle's midfielders adjust to life under new coach Ross Lyon.

With skipper Matthew Pavlich set to play predominantly up forward this season, the bulk of the midfield responsibilities will fall on the likes of Fyfe, David Mundy, Michael Barlow, Stephen Hill, Anthony Morabito and Hayden Ballantyne.

Fyfe said the young group were embracing the challenge, but would take time to gel after Barlow, Mundy and Morabito were hit hard by injuries last year.

"We've got a completely new midfield structure and I've just enjoyed getting my head around that and learning as I go," Fyfe said on Monday.

"It's sort of back to school a little bit for some of us midfielders and for the whole team as well.

"With Barlow, Morabito and Mundy returning, it's going to strengthen our side.

"I've put on a little bit more bulk this year and I've enjoyed the move into the midfield, so hopefully that's where I'll play this year."

Mundy (ankle) and Morabito (quad) will definitely miss Friday night's pre-season clash with Hawthorn at Patersons Stadium, but Barlow remains a slight chance to return despite experiencing soreness in his leg last month.

Fyfe has been in scintillating form during the pre-season, but believed he was still yet to reach full fitness after off-season shoulder surgery restricted his early training load.

However, the 186-centimetre ball magnet was confident the upcoming hit-out against Hawthorn would leave him "cherry ripe" for round one.

Fyfe only narrowly missed out on All-Australian selection last year in a breakout season.

But the number 20 pick from the 2009 national draft said it was far too early to start talking up his Brownlow medal chances.

"Obviously I had a pretty good year last year, but internally at the footy club they're really good at keeping people grounded and Freo's done that really well for me," Fyfe said.

"I'm just focusing on getting my body right and ready to go come the proper season."

Young midfielder Lachie Neale, who twisted his ankle in last week's loss to Port Adelaide, will miss the next two to three weeks with the injury.

Hawthorn will enter this week's clash full of confidence after pumping Melbourne by 79 points on Saturday.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, fremantle-6160

First posted March 12, 2012 17:31:06

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McCartney takes Bulldogs back to school

Updated November 07, 2011 20:30:06

New Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney is committed to spending long periods in the classroom this summer in a bid to engineer a return to the top eight.

McCartney, an 11-year assistant at Geelong who crossed to Essendon a year ago, kicked off the Bulldogs' pre-season training with a warning that plenty of things needed to change.

Overcoming the club's star complex would be a good start, he said.

Brownlow Medallist Adam Cooney and former All-Australian full-back Brian Lake are among a group of players yet to resume full training.

And McCartney says even if Cooney and Lake have luck with injury next year, they can not carry the club on their own.

"I've spent a long time at one club," McCartney said at Whitten Oval on Monday.

"They (2011 premiers Geelong) are good in all areas of the game.

"We have things here that we do really well and when it's our day we do them brilliantly.

"There's other things in the game that we've got to get better at.

"We're going to work heavily in the classroom with them, showing them examples of it ... continually go back to it so they learn to see it for themselves out of the field."

McCartney says it is too hard to predict if Cooney can successfully battle a chronic knee injury to play a full season.

"I do know the more games the smarter more educated players play, the better your team generally looks," he said.

"We're no different to probably 13 other clubs. They're all managing really good players through different levels of rehab and conditioning.

"The quicker this football club gets its head around not relying on star players to get a result, the better we'll be.

"Do we need star players for us to function as a team? They help, but they're not the be-all and end-all.

"We need everyone on the list contributing to a team and that's how we'll coach them."

McCartney conceded the Bulldogs lacked polish at times in midfield in 2011.

"There's so many parts of this game that can be taught," he said.

"Players get labelled as an inside player or an outside player.

"My theory is that players who fit either box can learn the other parts of the games (like) to know how to make decisions based around how the ground looks.

"I'm a firm believer that can be taught and that's what we're going to set about doing."

McCartney said he is prepared to be patient with his new class.

"There's a tolerance level, there'll a patience level, but there'll be a strong demand on learning what we want pretty quickly too," he said.

The rehab group included Dale Morris, who did some boxing on Monday as part of his recovery from a broken leg suffered in round 21.

Daniel Cross and skipper Matthew Boyd led the way in Monday's beep-test run.

Luke Dahlhaus and Matthew Panos have been upgraded to the senior list and Liam Jones, Christian Howard, Dylan Addison and Lukas Markovic have re-signed.

AAP

Tags: australian-football-league, sport, footscray-3011, vic, australia

First posted November 07, 2011 20:30:06

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