“But he stayed true to us. We stayed true to him, and we’ll keep playing for him. We love him as a coach.”
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A heart-to-heart chat among the player group following the calamitous 61-point loss to St Kilda at Marvel Stadium proved to be the turning point of the season.
Ryan was one of the leaders who got up to confront the group straight after that game.
Fremantle won 12 of their next 15 matches to lock in just their second finals berth since 2015, and they are backing themselves to give the premiership a red-hot crack this year.
“I sort of felt like we were playing as individuals. We weren’t playing as a team,” Ryan said.
“We were just playing a soft brand of footy, a selfish brand of footy. And I think after that, everyone agreed.
“We had a good players chat. A lot of the leaders chimed in. A few other boys chimed in and agreed.
“And we bought into it after that game – we are such a different team from that game to now.”
Fremantle enter Saturday’s match with 51 games of finals experience.
In contrast, Gold Coast only have 21 games of finals experience across three players – former Tiger Daniel Rioli (13 games), ex-Pie John Noble (seven) and former Saint Ben Long (one).
The final siren will bring to an end one great career – either that of Fremantle’s two-time Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe, or former Gold Coast captain David Swallow.
The Dockers have recalled Isaiah Dudley and Nathan O’Driscoll for Sam Switkowski (knee) and Corey Wagner (pec), while Swallow comes in for Jake Rogers in the Suns’ only change.
AAP