Fremantle Dockers defender Luke Ryan says membership will shed ‘vanilla’ model for ultimate follow match and season | USAEMALL.com

Fremantle defender Luke Ryan has pledged his side will take the game on this season after coach Justin Longmuir kept cards close to his chest against the Indigenous All Stars.

Longmuir raised eye-brows when he revealed he deliberately had the Dockers play a “vanilla” style in the exhibition match at Optus Stadium on Saturday because all clubs would have access to behind-the-goals footage of the game.

That won’t be the case when they play Melbourne at Rushton Park in Mandurah next weekend and Ryan said that will be when Fremantle unveil a faster style.

The Dockers also drew criticism last season for measured ball movement from the back-half.

Ryan — who spent the game sitting next to Longmuir on the bench — also said players were forced to defend deeper because of the All Stars’ pace.

“We’re going to be a lot faster and more attacking,” he told SEN on Thursday.

“It’s a weird game, that one, because every player of theirs is fast and our high half-backs are playing really in the back pocket. So it’s hard to do a bit of ball movement when you’ve got Brennan Cox as well playing on Kozzie Pickett and (Josh) Draper playing on Shai Bolton, then you’ve got our other younger, faster guys playing real deep back pocket.

“We’re going to be a lot more attacking. I think that’s the way the game is evolving as well.

“I wouldn’t take too much out of that game. You will probably see a whole different sort of game against Melbourne in a couple of weeks.”

Ryan was removed from the Dockers squad for their first practice match after copping a knock at training, but he is expected to play the Demons.

It meant Cox and Draper were Fremantle’s defensive pillars in a backline that was also missing Alex Pearce. Ryan believes Draper — who played the first 20 games of his career last season — will be a regular again.

“He’s been enormous, he is training unbelievably well,” he said.

“He has played on Shai Bolton pretty much all of pre-season, doing jobs on him, then also doing jobs on keys as well, then on the weekend he played a really good game alongside Brennan Cox as our key pillars and they played really well.

“I reckon Drapes will be playing pretty much all year, he is a good player, he is a special talent. I’m excited to see what he can do, he is going to be a lot better this year.”