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Taxes and fees, extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of detail. >> Coach of Fremantle, Justin Longmu, I had this to say about some of these players, stat stuffing the sheet. >> I mean, everyone loves looking at the Peel stats on all of all their players. It's not just Neil. They love looking at all the stats and reading stats and thinking a game is determined by what stat sheet so it says at the end of the day. I don't have a look at the stat sheet and not even any other game. At the end of the day, look at all aspects of their role that contribute to us being a good team. There's no doubt in the seniors on the weekend that guys were worried more about how many possessions they got than how they competed in the contest, how they pressured the opposition and how they defended. That's not what I stand for. Here's the coach. >> Justin Longmu, Alex Pierce is the doctor's captain. Alex, appreciate your time. Harsh words from the coach. Has it been talked about internally? Has he spoken to the playing group about stat watching? >> Not quite in those terms. Usually to my ears, we could die never. It's not the stat sheet, so it's very nice in here. I don't look at the stats either, so I don't know where I'm at. We're on the same page there. Oh, look, I get what he's talking about. I'm not sure what the question referred to, but we've spoken a lot this week about what we value with the team and what's important and don't have to start with team defense and contest. And I think if you ask, most teams around the contest, that's what I'll say. And yeah, we, as I said, didn't go quite going to those. That's the language, but yeah, this week, the targeted team defense and contest, which is what it has been all year, and we've truly fell away for us last weekend. >> You're probably not going to admit to this, but you come off that huge win against Melbourne in the NT. You have a buy and you come back and you probably dish up your worst performance along with the Derby. It just wasn't the freer we expected. And then everyone says, "Oh, well, you're probably drinking "your own bath water and believing in all the publicity "that you're back and you're going to contend again." How, when you're playing, the difference between what you dished up against Melbourne, to what you dished up against the dogs, just tell us what actually does go wrong. Is it mind? Is it strategy? What is it? >> Yeah. Oh, look, I wish I could tell you exactly. That's clearly what we've been talking a lot about. Fully early in the week, we've moved on now, the post game. We're all asking that same question. And yeah, we talk like it comes up. The buy and the preparation, leading into it and like heading into the game, we'd prepared. >> As well as we had all year, and I think from a physical point of view, we kicked every box and we were ready to go. So I think it is, it is mind, like, whether you subconsciously take a foot off the pedal after what was, yeah, clearly a good win, a four night ago and you have the buy. So, look, I think, something I spoke about early in the week, it's just, but this industry that we're in, it's so cut, throat, it's so tough. Every week, you come up against an opposition that's desperate, hungry for a win and that's what the Bulldogs were a couple of weeks ago and we were a bit off and you just can't afford to have those little lapses in the season. So, look, it's a really, it's a good learning. I wish we didn't have to go through it. And it gives us a little realignment of, as I sort of touched on, and as JL touched on, what's really important. So, yeah, definitely excited to, well, I'm sure we put that one behind us and come out on Sunday in front of our home crowd finally for the first time in a month and put in a performance, which is more, more like us and more to work, more, that we'll be proud of. Yeah, Alex, it's, look, I think looking at this year, you can see the best of Fremantle and I think it's as good as anyone in the comp when you guys are up and going and you're going well. The drop off is obviously, as the weekend just showed, it says quite a bit of a gap and there's never, no one ever goes out and doesn't try and play in football and sometimes it happens. And the stuff that JL's sort of talking about in terms of the way that players are approaching games and caring about things other than the contest, it's as a leader, how do you sort of, I know no one goes out there and doesn't try, but you have games like that where it just does fall apart pretty quickly. And now you've, with the competition so tight, this week's massive, next week's massive, every week is huge with the position on the ladder. As a leader, how do you sort of get the boys to be really dialed in and be focused every week with the ups and the downs and all the rest of it? How do you guys keep on track? Yeah, that's a good question. We've spoken a lot around this time of year as well. We're heading into winter, it gets to be colder, it gets to be darker, it gets a little bit harder to like continue the habits and processes that you've built throughout the earlier part of the season. So we're trying to like as leaders set the example and make sure we're doing everything and trying to find the ways to reach that performance every week. And it's definitely like a conversation that, yeah, we can sort of set the standard environment and try and get guys out. But there's also an element where each player has to take control of their individual destiny in their career and keep finding ways to recover, train well to all year. Your regular preparation and it can get quite boring really. It's a pretty like it's rinse and repeat for the whole season. It gets to awesome at times. So we're working with the coaches in the whole group that are trying to find ways to keep things fresh and just remind everyone that, yeah, this is the industry that we're in and it's tough and you need to keep finding ways to motivate yourself each week. And as I said, we're covering to all those little things that you need to do to make sure that when we rock up on game day for those two hours, we're ready to give absolutely everything we've got. And yeah, you're right, there's a couple of times this year that we've fallen away but for the rest of the season, we really look like a side who can compete with anyone and that's what we're looking to do this weekend. Yeah, it's not all doom and gloom isn't as we move forward to the Gold Coast. You are in the eight, you've got a healthy percentage, your playing stocks are pretty good, you've made some changes and you know, the guys into the squad, Chapman Davies for debut, if possible, he's lined up against you, in fact, he'll play Tom Emmett, Erasmus and Wagner, they're all, they'll all get games for other clubs. I mean, Hugh Davies, we're going to get a site off, but they're all going to get games for other clubs. So it is not all sort of doom and gloom there. So what's your expectation of the weekend? You talk about being at home for the first time, the conditions should be okay and you take on Gold Coast and if I'd said to you, Alex, that it will be a Gold Coast forward loan without Ben King and without Jed Walter, who's everyone talked about how good and big and strong he's going to be, you might not have a role on the weekend, you might not, might as well not play captain. Gee, I'm glad you're not coaching the team. I don't know if I want to spell now. Look, I think I just mentioned about how tough this industry is and everyone gets up. I don't think the Gold Coast are going to roll over and say, "Here you go, boys, that's four points." So I hope no one else is listening to this that I'll get them back on track now. Look, it's, you touched on the guys coming in, potentially coming in. It's really exciting. Hughie Davies is a young kid who's been working so hard for the last couple of years and played some good footy towards the end of the last year and has just really kept stacking performances this season. And it's like how you really want to play with when we rock up to work on a Monday and we reviewed both P.L.A. and A.P. and A.P. are going to, as always, he's always in their clips putting his body on the line and yeah, really excited that he gets his opportunity, he gets to run out with him and yeah, for everyone else who gets their chance and as we've sort of touched on Nause and a little bit, we're moving on from last week and we want to play with the, that brand of footy with intense physical, tough brand of footy that we've played for a large part of this year and we're all sort of excited to do that, particularly in front of our home fans. It's been a while, it's great to be back to us and yeah, there's a really exciting amongst the groups to come out and perform on Sunday. Everyone tries to take it a week at a time in football and then you can sort of take blocks of the year and chunk it up and have themes and all the rest of it and focus on a bit and yes, you've got Gold Coast to beat this week. You've got a pretty tough month of football coming up, Gold Coast haven't won away from home but they're due to play a good game outside of the Gold Coast and so that could be any week. Then you've got Sydney and we've got Richmond who are playing a little bit, you know, they're playing a little bit better and then you've got the Hawks who are flying. So it's with the competition as tight as it is, you've got to be at your best every other week and I mean, I know that you're focused on the Gold Coast this week. What do you, do you guys look at the next month of football or do you have guys that sort of project forward and you have a different way that you approach a certain block or is it as just as simple as right, we knock over Gold Coast, we go to Sydney, we do that. What do you sort of have a bit of a theme for a big chunk of football? We do sometimes portion up certain games of the season and it's been a bit of a narrative around it but I think as we've touched on the narrative around this game, it's just a bounce back from last week and we're solely focused on our performance and getting back to our brand of football. Yeah, look, I don't look too far ahead personally, like I said, I'll be like JL, don't look at the stats sheet, don't look too far ahead. Maybe some blokes that some blokes to do and that's that's fine though. I think we're pretty comfortable with how everyone's sort of prepared for this Sunday and you're like as we've sort of touched on getting into a trap of getting ahead of yourself, focusing on other things and then if you do that and come up and entertain with Gold Hungary and ready to go and you find yourself in some trouble so yeah, now it's all everything's focused on Gold Coast Sunday. Where are you about to brush your teeth? So we won't hold you any longer or you're just running the tap for cleaning the cup or whatever you're doing there. Hey, Captain! I didn't run it, so yeah, you're getting ready to reach the thing. It's the winter solstice, right? Things happen. Winter solstice today, is that intriguing at all? It doesn't have, you mentioned it, it's not something they've had on the calendar, but yeah, it's good to know. I don't want to tell you no, this is the life of the day as we go. Exactly right, we're still dark outside at a quarter past seven. Alex Pearce is our guest. Look, you're probably spoken about this ad nauseam. I'm just intrigued by you. Now, this is personal. Last year, from an outsider looking in, it looked like the captain says, "As much as you're trying to lead," and everyone's telling us how well the inspirational leader you were, that whether it would be a fitness, whether it be a mental capacity to cope with, you know, the year, whatever it may be, but it looked a little ragged at times and everybody said, "Oh, you might not be the right pick for captaincy." Now we see this Alex Pearce, all Australian contention, great leader, I mean, you've always been beautifully spoken and the strong leadership of mind and voice. What did you seek assistance? Do you see what we were seeing looking in? Do you feel the pressure last year and this year is different? I'm interested to know about Alex Pearce's spin or Alex Pearce's view on what everyone else thought they were seeing last year and the pressure of being the captain. Yeah, interesting one. I was aware of all the, yeah, all the noise around me last year and I'm often my biggest critic and I was, yeah, probably not playing up to the level that I would like and, yeah, getting a bit more attention-wise makes that a little bit harder, but I think one thing that got me a little bit of trouble last year was putting a bit too much pressure on myself and wanting to be everything and do everything for everyone and when you start the poorly like we did, it just made it, yeah, it made that really, really tough. This year, I don't know, things just felt a little bit more comfortable. I felt a bit more settled in the role. I've had some time to, yeah, I had to get a custom to things and to take a little bit of pressure off myself. I've also continued to have the same support throughout the leadership group which last year was young and new and, yeah, look, it's like I've had my health been a little bit better this year. It's been nice to be on the track a little bit more. All of these things go into the into the melting pot a little bit. So nothing left field. Nothing left field. You didn't go and, you know, sit in the room and just play in here with some incense and all that sort of stuff. You didn't do anything really weird. I don't mean that. Well, I did, but that's nothing to do. I don't want to say something and that would be like Alex Pierce makes revolutionary for the changes his, the changes his captaincy. Like I went on a trip with a few of the leaders in JL last year to the States and we looked, we went through some other professional sporting organisation, NFL, NBA, college football and it was a good experience and it's like during that time I was reflecting quite a bit on the season that it sort of, I don't know, seemed to really high high performers, the high success environment around the world. It sort of put things into perspective about what we're doing and we're trying to be the best in the world at our craft and potentially made me sort of reassess and prioritise a few different things. I've taken off uni for this trimester to give myself a bit of extra mental space and capacity and look, I don't know, I said just taking a bit of pressure off myself. It's been, it's been one thing that allowed me to be really confident and I think when you're playing confident and you're not trying too hard, that makes, makes you a better player and makes you a better leader. Otherwise, when I came in wanting to be authentic and not be anyone else and just took me a little bit of time to be able to trust myself to actually be my authentic self and not be trying too hard to please other people or worry about what's going on in the media. I don't know, like everything, little bits and pieces throughout that have helped me get to where I am now. Well, I think Alex just looking in as good a defender as there is in the comp at the moment and you're flying along and you've got the Free-O team galvanised, the back line looks good now, a little bit of we've talked winter solstice, we've talked leadership, we've talked all sorts. So on a lighter note, Hugh Davies comes in this week for his debut. He's, I mean, we love backman, he's going to be playing alongside you down there. What can you tell us about him? I mean, you don't need to expect much, he's debuting, you just got to get out there and have fun, but what can you tell us about the young kid? Well, straight to the best fourth and allow me to play a bit of a roll off roll, that's the first thing obviously, the young fella, straight into the call phase. Now, like he's, as I sort of touched on before, he's a bit of a team favourite, Hughie, he's off the field, he's just a he's good value, he's, he's fun, he's always up, he's always up for a, up for a chat and a bit of a life of the the addressing room, but on field, he's just, I think it probably came to time late last season when things have clicked and returned and he's just become a guy that's really dog hungry and desperate. I think the respect of his teammates when he plays and, and that's what it touched on when we were reviewing sort of pill gains and stuff, he's always coming up in clips and gets plenty of praise and the respect of his team mates is just super high, so it was definitely a popular inclusion and it always makes you think when you guys are day doing and particularly down back, my water was like for me and it was eight straight on nine years ago when it happened and yeah, it's exciting, I know myself and Luke, you want to make it easy for him and yeah, let him enjoy himself and play his way and have fun and hopefully in the end get a win and really celebrate well with him. Will he get to take a kick in? You gonna give him a kick in just get him on the board early? Look, that's not my domain, uh, I just find scratch every kick I can get and like that, so look at you, that's what we're talking about Luke, he and potentially Clark, if you want to kick in. Yeah, well, your stats were very flat last week, nine disposals, four marks and one clearance, but lots of lots of spoils, Alex, so not that you know the stats and you don't care about them but there you go. I don't know them, but look people tell me regardless. Did more of the ball, mate? Fantastic, looking forward to it. Um, a huge chance to bounce back and some possible some ends, you lose Michael Walters and made a change down back with Josh Draper, where Hugh Davies comes back in. Appreciate your time, appreciate your honesty, always well spoken and good luck on Sunday. Thanks a lot, fellas. Alex, thanks so much. He's a good speaker, isn't he? He's a good speaker. He is so mentioned. He slept in with the winter solstice, isn't he? Just nice and yeah, just relaxed. Yeah, he's just very swollen out of bed. Yeah, I don't think he writes the winter solstice as much as you have. No, I know. I mean, look out so I can still can't even see how there yet, can't even see the canfield. Oh, it's got your name on it. It's got your name on it. Welcome, Hamish. Andrew Brayshaw, brother, was asked recently, a couple of weeks ago, might have been in last week. Back half of the season, give us a debut, give us predict the future for your football club. This is Andrew Brayshaw. Big second half of the year for Hugh Davies. I reckon he could be potentially lining up in the purple sometime. Wow. There it is. That was against before the Melbourne game. That's at the top end. I mean, I don't want to keep harping on the solstice, but geez, it's in the air and he probably knew that it was around this time. Very good work. And yesterday, Hugh Davies was announced to make his debut. He rang his family. They didn't answer. So then he rang his best mate, Maxie Raw, who's got a very bright future. He's in the '18s Championship. I think he hit four against South Australia the other day. So he rang his best mate to tell him, have a listen to this reaction. We go to the break. Here's Hugh Davies sharing the news with his best mate, Max. What are you doing, bro? What are you doing, Sunday? Yeah, I'm playing, bro. Yeah. You're finding out for mum and dad. So you're a special one. Oh, I know. Yeah, I didn't pick up. I'm the socialist, bro. Yeah, it's on the social look around. You're like, you're, I've got a ghost. Yeah. They're pausing for a bad day.
