16 hours ago
Pearce to miss third straight clash with shin injury
Fremantle captain Alex Pearce has been ruled out of Thursday night's clash with Essendon at Optus Stadium.
Pearce will miss a third straight match with a stress-related shin injury.
'It's going to be a bit too tight to get him up for this week, he hasn't quite progressed the way he wanted to,' Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir said before training yesterday.
'So we will have to give him a little bit longer. He's not in drills, and he needed to be in drills by today. So he hasn't quite got there.
'He's moving around, he probably just hasn't taken that next step yet.'
The Dockers coach said there was not yet a timeline on his return.
'It will be KPI driven. We are managing him through that. We can't really put a time frame on it. We're hoping for next week.' Alex Pearce hasn't played in round 11. Credit: Paul Kane / Getty Images
Pearce's absence means he will miss the three matches he was originally banned for following a collision with Port Adelaide's Darcy Byrne-Jones in round 11, before the Dockers successfully overturned it at the AFL Tribunal.
Longmuir said the general health of the squad was good heading into a short, five-day turnaround between Saturday night's narrow win over North Melbourne in the wet and Thursday night's clash with Essendon at Optus Stadium.
'A few bumps and bruises. It was obviously a pretty contested game in the wet, but the players are in good spirits, and we've moved on and are ready to get into Essendon,' he said.
Essendon will unleash an 11th debutant of 2025 against the Dockers, with ruckman Vigo Visentini making the trip to Perth for his first AFL game.
Visentini has averaged 17.6 disposals, 31 hitouts and 3.3 clearances in the VFL and gets his chance through the absence of regular ruckmen Sam Draper and Nick Bryan who both have long-term injuries.
Veteran Todd Goldstein had been employed as ruck coach but stepped in to fill the void across eight games but will be rested for the interstate trip.
Peter Wright and Lachie Blakiston, who made his debut last weekend, will help Visentini with the ruck load.
Longmuir said the selectors would heavily weigh up whether to play their ruck pair Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy this weekend off the five-day break.
Both trained on Tuesday and showed no ill effects from the clash with the Roos.
'We'll consider that later, see how Sean goes at training in particular, but both are talking as though they've pulled up really well,' Longmuir said. Sean Darcy at Fremantle training. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper / The West Australian
'It's possibly an opportunity. We don't want to underestimate the young fellow (Visentini). He's been in really good form in the VFL. His ruck craft, from what I've seen in VFL games, looks really strong and he works hard around the ground.
'So we definitely don't want to underestimate him, but he hasn't got the experience of Goldstein either. So maybe there's an opportunity there.'
Liam Reidy is coming off a strong game for Peel Thunder so also remains an option, should Fremantle rest either Jackson or Darcy.
