Fremantle to be without Nat Fyfe for the rest of the year after another serious shoulder injury

Fremantle are resigned to being without inspirational captain Nat Fyfe for the rest of the season after he was subbed out of the 40-point loss to Sydney with another shoulder injury.

Fyfe dislocated his shoulder against the Western Bulldogs last month and has attempted to fight on for the last four games. But he clutched at his right shoulder after a contest for a ground ball in the second quarter and took no further part in the match.

Coach Justin Longmuir said it was time to make a serious decision about surgery.

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“We’ll have to look at what we do now. The likelihood is he’ll go in for surgery I would imagine, now that he’s had a re-injure of it. His season might be done,” Longmuir said.

“We’ve felt like it’s been improving. We’ve felt like his confidence has been improving with it a well. Sometimes when you’ve got a weak shoulder it can pop out in the same spot pretty easily again.

“He’s played with his shoulder in a very similar situation before a couple of years ago and got through. Unfortunately he didn’t get through today. We don’t feel he’s done any more damage to it.”

It was a brutal day for the Dockers with Michael Walters injuring his hamstring and facing a challenge to recover before the end of the season. Key defender Alex Pearce is in doubt for the upcoming clash against Richmond after suffering a late head knock and not returning to the game.

Longmuir wasn’t certain whether Pearce was diagnosed with concussion, but the backman will be monitored throughout the week.

With veteran Stephen Hill injuring his hamstring in the WAFL, Fremantle’s horror run of luck refuses to stop.

Sydney won the match 14.14 (98) to 8.10 (58) in Fremantle veteran David Mundy’s 350th game.

The Dockers started well but were blown away after quarter time. Longmuir said the team needed to be better when momentum turned against them.

“As has been a little bit the same against the better teams, whenever momentum goes against us, we just don’t handle those situations well,” Longmuir said.

“We shot ourselves in the foot with bad turnovers in D50 which led the goals. Then we went a bit insular and got real safe and brought pressure on ourselves. It was really disappointing.

“We need to be better when the opposition get on top. We played really good footy and should have been more in front at quarter time. I felt like we butchered a few opportunities which opened the door for them.

“When the pressure came on we couldn’t match their pressure but couldn’t buffer their pressure by owning the ball. In the first quarter we had over 30 marks. IN the second quarter we had 13 marks and just kept putting it back into chaos.”