Fremantle defender Luke Ryan says Dockers ready to win game of tag to turn tables on St Kilda

West Australian

3 days ago

Fremantle's Luke Ryan has sent a warning to St Kilda tagger Marcus Windhager, saying the whole team is ready to wear him down should he try to clamp down on Caleb Serong.
As the Dockers look to make it six straight wins, they will be itching to gain some revenge over former mentor Ross Lyon and his Saints after they were humbled by 61 points in round eight.
That game saw Serong kept to his lowest disposal total since round 17, 2020, gathering 15 touches including just four kicks.
Ahead of their rematch on Sunday, Ryan said they have learnt their lessons from that defeat and can turn any potential tag into a strength for the Dockers.
'Caleb and Andrew Brayshaw are in terrific form, so they do get tagged a little bit, but we don't worry about it too much,' he said on SEN.
'We try to manipulate them. If Windhager is going to go to us, then Caleb will go to Andy's man and free him up, so sometimes we think it works in our favour.
'Those two boys are really good at fighting and working it out, and we do have a team approach for it. If someone comes after one of us, he comes after all of us, so we'll wear them down.
'So I'm not sure who he'll go to, but he'll have his hands full because they're in terrific form.'
The Dockers have not won six in a row since 2022, and Ryan said while they're still building the Dockers have narrowed the gap between their best and worst.
'I thought the start of the year we were pretty inconsistent, but the last five or six weeks we've been building, and we're worrying about ourselves a bit more, which is good,' he said.
'If we keep on that path, I think we'll be in a lot of games.
'We haven't really watched any vision of St Kilda until now, but it's mainly going to be about us and playing our way, cause we know our game stacks up.'
One question still hanging over the Dockers is the fitness of their captain Alex Pearce, who has missed the last three games with a shin complaint and is listed as a test for this weekend.
However, Ryan was confident his return to the backline was imminent.
'He looks good, he had his shirt off the other day at training, as always when it's freezing, ' he joked.
'He's one of those ones who's had a hot spot, so he'll train today and see how he pulls up tomorrow, but he's really confident, so if not this week, it will be next week.
Sunday's clash will also be Fremantle's Starlight Foundation game with fans able to pledge any dollar amount for each Dockers goal which will be matched by South32 up to $50,000.
'I think we raised over $3.4 million, and you get a bit emotional when you see the families with the sick kids and the smiles on their faces, so it's an amazing day,' Ryan said.