Fremantle stalwart defender Jordan Clark is keen to put together a consistent four-quarter effort against St Kilda on Friday night, encouraged by his side's bounce back win over Adelaide on Anzac Day.
The Dockers, who rank last for pressure acts and 16th for tackles inside 50, turned up the intensity against the Crows, doubling their tackles inside 50 from their match against Melbourne, improving on the areas that the group addressed during a brutally honest "players only chat" last Monday.
"We've been a little bit inconsistent with [our effort] this year," Clark told media on Monday.
"It was pretty well documented throughout last week that we had a players only chat where the leaders presented a few things and players got up.
"I think [the effort against Adelaide] is the norm for us and we need to bring that week in and week out, it's the standard now. The reality was we didn't do that for the full four quarters [against Melbourne].
"We're aware of that and look forward to going out this weekend and doing that for four quarters."
Clark was one of Fremantle's best on Friday night with eight defensive half pressure acts and four tackles, including a chase-down effort which prevented a certain goal in the pivotal third quarter. The extra levels of desperation were motivated by his underwhelming intensity in the loss to Melbourne, which were exposed during the post-match review.
"We showed a few clips last week about controllable things like lack of effort and care and I was in one of those clips. I never want to see myself in one of those ever again," Clark said.
"I don't think I need to look past any more than that to have the motivation to repeat what we did on the weekend.
"Kozzie Pickett got in front of me and kicked a goal and I wasn't physical enough. I want to call myself a senior player now so I need to be better than that. It was in the first five minutes of the game and probably set the tone for the day, so looking back it was pretty embarrassing."
Clark followed teammate Caleb Serong's sentiment on the need to keep things simple and focus on the basic pillars that bring success at the AFL level.
"There was quite a bit of frustration around last week because everyone cares so much about this club and this team. At times you can be guilty of overtrying to correct things," Clark said.
"Sometimes the fixes are a little bit simpler than going over and above. I think it was a good reminder on the weekend that if we can control the controllables, which is effort and ability to get up on the opposition, then most of the games will look the way we want them to."
Fremantle travel to Marvel Stadium this weekend with the hopes of returning to the top eight, taking on a sliding St Kilda side who have lost their last three. The Dockers will need to bring their A-game, however, as, despite St Kilda's recent form, they still rank as one of the best pressure teams in the competition, fifth in pressure acts per game.
