Fremantle stalwart Luke Ryan makes bold claim after stirring preliminary final win: ‘We’re the fittest’
Fremantle stalwart Luke Ryan says the Dockers know they are the fittest team in the AFL, as he looks forward to a grand final after some tough early years at the club.
For the third straight finals game this year Fremantle found themselves behind deep into the game, but they ran over the top of Sydney in Friday’s preliminary final at the SCG , after burning off Geelong the week before.
They trailed Sydney by 28 points late in the third quarter, but kicked the last six goals of the match and outscored the tiring Swans 5.4 to 0.1 in the last quarter to eventually prevail 12.11 (83) to 10.11 (71).
“We’ve been in that position so many times this year and we’ve got such faith in the way that we can run and play our games,” Ryan told AAP.
“We know we’re the fittest team in the competition and JL (coach Justin Longmuir) has got full faith in us and we played a little bit more aggressive.
“Last week, we were down to Geelong and we had full confidence we could come back and win.
Defender Ryan, who has played 204 games for Fremantle, the most of anyone on their list, experienced plenty of lean times prior to this year.
It wasn’t until his sixth season in 2002, that Fremantle logged more wins than losses across an entire campaign, with less than 10 victories achieved in each of his first four years at the club.
Prior to this season, Ryan had played in three finals matches for one win and two losses and then there was the home defeat by Hawthorn in a home qualifying final this year.
Ryan’s faith in his team never wavered as he remained confident they could win big finals matches.
“Last year that first final, we didn’t play our way, but we took so many lessons from it.
“We’ve just galvanised as a group and we’ve just matured and the boys are so connected.
“I’ve never seen a more connected group, it’s so fun to be at the club.
“Blokes get there early, blokes leave late. We find the club as a happy place and we just want to be around each other so much.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on 7news.com.au — the content belongs to 7NEWS Australia.
