FREMANTLE coach Ross Lyon has leapt to the defence of Nat Fyfe following criticism of the superstar midfielder's form after his return from a broken leg.
Former AFL coach Terry Wallace believes the Dockers skipper hasn't come back "anywhere near the player he was" and declared Fyfe's rival Patrick Dangerfield has become a better footballer by a distance.
But Lyon insisted that Fyfe had been "super" this season and compared the sensationalism of football analysis to cheap stocks being spruiked for sale.
"I saw Terry's comments. Terry's paid to make comment. I often talk about the analogy of all the penny dreadfuls on the stock market with all the mining stocks – you've got to sell your story, and you've got to sell a good story to get heard," Lyon said.
"What is there, 1600 accredited journalists covering AFL football? And they're all penny dreadfuls trying to get heard.
"And it might be an accurate assessment, I'm not too sure. He's very knowledgeable. He was a great coach and a great player.
"But there's consistently a lot of noise and a lot of penny dreadfuls trying to be heard, and they tend to go down the sensationalist route because it's click-bait.
"But I think in Terry's case – he's got a view. The simple alignment would be, after a year and a half out, it takes a fair bit to get back to being your best.
"Nathan's played some super halves and three-quarters of football."
Compared to his 2015 Brownlow Medal-winning season, Fyfe is averaging fewer disposals (28.8 to 26.2), contested possessions (17.8 to 14.6), clearances (8.7 to 5.4) and tackles (4.3 to 3.9).
The 25-year-old's clangers (3.8 to 5.1) have risen – he had 13 during the 100-point loss to Adelaide– although his disposal efficiency has improved (69.6 to 74 per cent).
Lyon pointed out that the new skipper's leadership has been crucial to Fremantle's climb up the ladder after a disastrous 0-2 start, and was confident Fyfe was building his form.
"For a list for where we're at and what we're doing I think Nathan's been super, with our senior players (David) Mundy, (Michael) Johnson, and (Michael) Walters – those sort of guys getting us to where we are," Lyon said.
"You can't do that without Nathan playing very good football - that's just impossible.
"If you're being really picky, you're probably saying from the first bounce to the last bounce he's had some ebbs and flows. But I've got no doubt he's building and will come to that.
"Nathan's very special to us. His captaincy is in his infancy, and he's already leaving his footprint of being able to drag the group along with him, along with Mundy, (Aaron) Sandilands, and those guys.
"Did anyone tip us to be 6-4 after being 0-2? I wouldn't have thought so.
"That's been driven off the back of Nathan and his leadership and the leadership group."
Fyfe trained away from the Dockers' main group on Wednesday, and refrained from marking the ball, while ball magnet Lachie Neale was unsighted.
Sandilands also didn't make an appearance, but Lyon was confident the giant ruckman would return after missing the Crows clash with hamstring tightness.
"It's really coming on in leaps and bounds, so we're optimistic," he said. "We'll give him every chance."
Ed Langdon (knee) is set to return with the Dockers likely to make changes after an abject effort in Adelaide.
"No-one's safe because it's a performance business," Lyon said.
