Fyfe contact worries Lyon
FREMANTLE coach Ross Lyon expects star Nat Fyfe to come under review today for an incident with Hawthorn midfielder Taylor Duryea in yesterday’s 72point annihilation at Aurora Stadium.
Fyfe barrelled front-on into the small Hawk in a marking contest seven minutes into the opening term.
Duryea was awarded a 50m penalty and did not appear to have any lasting effects from the contact.
“With incidents, I think the MRP will review and there will be outcomes, and I don’t like to pre-empt anyway. They’re doing their best, everything is what it is, and everything gets judged fairly,” Lyon said.
Lyon said did not have clear sigh of a secondquarter incident that left Fyfe nobbled by a corked thigh but expected nothing to come of it from the MRP.
He was handicapped by the injury and wore heavy strapping to his right thigh after a clash with Hawthorn hero Sam Mitchell.
“I saw a collision and he [Fyfe] kicked the ball forward. That’s all I saw. I’d like to know [what happened] but I don’t know,” Lyon said.
“It was a good cork but he fought on, he’s super, it’s pretty hard to hold him to account,”
Fremantle remained on top of the ladder despite the reality check from the dual reigning premier.
Freo’s forwards were put to the sword by Grant Birchall and Josh Gibson who racked up 58 possessions between them.
The Dockers managed only six majors while Hawthorn kicked 17 goals without Cyril Rioli or Jack Gunston making a contribution and Jarryd Roughead on the sidelines.
Lyon said there were two ways to look at it.
“It all depends if you want to be positive about the Dockers or negative,” he said.
“If you want to be positive you could say, gee they’ve played some super footy, they’re in a bit of a rut but they’re 12-2,” he said.
“But if you want to be negative, it’s gee they’re not scoring, they can’t score, they won’t beat anybody. It’s what you’re agenda is.” One thing is for sure. “They were too good for us,” Lyon said.
“We expected to come down and play better but they were too strong around the ball, stripped us of the ball and then spread and we couldn’t go with them.
“They made us look second rate.”