Colin Sylvia loses favour with Fremantle

Sylvia has averaged fewer than 10touches a game and kicked 1.3 in six appearances for the Dockers this season. He had only seven possessions in Fremantle’s shock 58-point loss to St Kilda two weeks ago that resulted in the club dropping from second on the ladder to fourth.

Sylvia, Anthony Morabito, Jon Griffin and Matt Taberner have made way for the star quartet of Aaron Sandilands, Hayden Ballantyne, Stephen Hill and Garrick Ibbotson.

Carlton has named vice-captain Andrew Carrazzo for the clash, although he didn’t take part in the team’s training session in Perth on Wednesday afternoon. Carrazzo has missed the past three games since injuring his quad in the Blues’ round 16 win over St Kilda.

Kade Simpson also watched the session from the sidelines, while Chris Judd participated in only about half of it.
Carlton also named Brock McLean who missed the round-18 win over North Melbourne with a hip complaint and Blaine Johnson for his fourth game of the season. Kane Lucas and Matt Watson have also travelled.

They replace Mitch Robinson, who will miss another game through suspension, and Troy Menzel and Andrejs Everitt, who both have knee injuries. Coach Mick Malthouse said that Everitt may miss the rest of the season.
Malthouse said he would not be reading too much into the Dockers’ ‘‘surprise’’ loss to the Saints, but hoped his side could emulate its own consistent performance in beating North Melbourne.

‘‘It was an encouraging win [against the Roos]; it was something I think we needed,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s OK to have your plan and your game strategies and look for the future, but you still have to make sure you try to win games for your supporters and the club  ... and to take North Melbourne who are, they were in line to try to get into [the] top four, not that we wanted to dent their prospects, it was more about ourselves. It was probably the most consistent we have played. I don’t think it’s the best we have played.

‘‘I made a comment a few weeks ago that some people were quite sceptical about, I think we are playing better footy than last year and I say that on the back of [the fact] we played a lot of top sides last year we really just didn’t ...we struggled through. We were competitive for a while. But I think we have been far more competitive against some of the top sides this year; that’s where I see the reflection more so than on win/loss.’’

Malthouse said that he expected Fremantle to come out firing with a spot in the top two still up for grabs.

But he said his side had showed  it can absorb the early pressure.