FREMANTLE chief executive Steve Rosich believes fewer of the club's fans will make the trip to Geelong for the club's qualifying final against the Cats than if the match was played at Etihad Stadium or the MCG.
Rosich said he was surprised by the AFL's decision to schedule the final at Simonds Stadium, with the Dockers also hoping to secure a charter flight for the trip east.
League CEO Andrew Demetriou justified the decision to hold the final in Geelong on Saturday night, saying fewer than 1000 travelling members from Fremantle made the corresponding trip to the 2012 elimination final between the two teams.
Rosich was adamant Freo fans would be discouraged from travelling.
"I think less people will travel," Rosich said.
"I think that's probably going to be the case.
"[But] we'll certainly be encouraging as many members as possible to go down to Simonds Stadium.
"One of the reasons for the decision, according to the AFL, is that they believe the crowd if it was at Etihad or the MCG would be in the order of 30-33,000, and that's a key reason why they're telling us they've made the decision to schedule this game at Simonds.
"We won't get to find out, will we, whether that's the case or not."
There were 44,460 fans at the MCG to see the Dockers beat the Cats in last year's elimination final. The AFL said more than 10,000 of those fans were MCC members.
More than 45,000 attended the 2010 semi-final between Geelong and Fremantle, also at the MCG.
Rosich said Fremantle had been proactive in its discussions with the AFL in the lead-up to the decision but once it was made, the Dockers switched their focus to preparing the players for the trip.
"We've hopefully secured a charter flight on the way to the game," Rosich said.
"That will leave at our desired time at 3pm on Thursday. That's been a large part of the focus since that decision has been made."
The charter flight will either land at Melbourne or Avalon airport.
The Dockers lost their final home and away match of the season, to St Kilda by 71 points on Saturday, after resting 11 players in preparation for the qualifying final.
Rosich said Demetriou was comfortable with Freo's decision to rest such a large number players against St Kilda.
"He said personally he didn't have a problem with the strategy that we took with respect to our last home and away game, which was about preparing ourselves in the best way possible for our first final," Rosich said.
"There is no doubt that we're better prepared for the game this weekend because of that strategy."
