Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich has backed his side to bounce back from a disappointing pre-season campaign ahead of the club's tough round one assignment against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.
After starting their NAB Cup campaign with an impressive win over West Coast, the Dockers fell meekly to Adelaide, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide in successive hit-outs.
The 56-point loss to the Power - when Fremantle boasted a near full-strength squad - was the most worrying result of the lot.
However, Pavlich said the pre-season defeats meant little and echoed president Rick Hart's sentiments in saying there would be no excuses for the club in season 2008.
"I'm very optimistic going into every year. The expectations we have on ourselves are very high and we are looking forward to fulfilling those," Pavlich said.
"We are dying to actually play games now that are extremely important and that are for four points."
"In the end we had a lot of young guys playing (during the pre-season), a lot of trialling of positions, high rotations. We had guys coming back from injury. So look into it what you will but the proof will be in the pudding come round one."
"I thought it (our pre-season training program) was great. I thought the conditioning aspect was tremendous. We've been training for 20 weeks now . . . it was a very stringent and arduous campaign."
Pavlich was confident Fremantle's midfield, a weakness during the team's 11th-placed finish last season, would hold strong in 2008 despite the loss of prolific on-baller Paul Hasleby to a season-ending knee injury.
"I think tactically the guys have changed a lot of things from the last few years," he said.
"Obviously (assistant coach) Peter German has taken that midfield role with the help of (fellow assistant coach) Chris Bond, so there are some different views there."
"I'm more than confident those guys (in the midfield) can win enough of the ball and also defend the opposition as well."
Hasleby's misfortune could open the door for 19-year-old midfielder Rhys Palmer to make his AFL debut against the Pies.
Palmer, taken by the Dockers with pick No. 7 in last year's national draft, has featured prominently throughout the club's pre-season campaign.
"He'll definitely play football this year, whether it's this week or round 10, who knows," Pavlich said.
"He's shown enough in the pre-season to be able to say he could handle the game. He'll play footy at some stage this season and I think he'll handle himself with aplomb."
Pavlich also said defending premiers Geelong and NAB Cup victors St Kilda were the teams to beat in 2008.