IN THE wake of his team's fourth win on the trot, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has questioned how well players' heads are being protected at the contest.
Former Lions captain Dayne Zorko was on the receiving end of a "vigorous sort of tackle" that saw Docker Matthew Johnson reported, while the visitors' captain Alex Pearce managed to avoid giving away a free kick more than once despite catching Brisbane forwards high.
"I don't want to comment on umpires, but I didn't think they protected the heads all that well today," Fagan said post-game.
"I was just a bit surprised today that a few high tackles were called, what was it, play on? I think the responsibility of the tackler is not to get the bloke around the head, but it seemed to me today, and I might be wrong, that the umpires were trying to interpret whether or not the bloke was actually ducking his head and deserved to be tackled in that moment.
"The bloke with the ball has got to be looked after."
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Fagan did, however, concede that some unwanted contact or poor tackling technique will always be present in the game because of the speed at which it is played.
"I don't think the players mean to do it. We think the game's easy, but the game's really hard and it's really fast and there are spur-of-the moment decision made," Fagan said.
"It's been around for a long time, the dangerous tackle, but it's still not going out of the game. The reason for that is, it's hard to get it right in the spur of the moment all the time. They're just human."
Fagan credited his side's newfound spread through the midfield for their recent run of form.
"There was a bit of a view around football last year, and it was probably a little bit fair I guess, that if you stop Lachie Neale you stop Brisbane. I think we've got a few more strings in our bow in that midfield area now and Will (Ashcroft) has just added to that," he said.
Ashcroft's second quarter goal, sure to be a rebel Goal of the Year contender, was "pretty special" according to Fagan, as was Michael Walters' final quarter dribbler.
The view of both goals was something both coaches could agree on, with Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir suggesting that Brisbane "might be trying that stuff at training" after Cameron's stunner last week.
"They kick a lot of good goals unfortunately," Longmuir said.
The Dockers came out with a clear intent to take the game on, and it was something Longmuir admitted his side wasn't able to consistently strike a balance in.
"You can't come up here and be conservative against a really mature team, so we wanted to take the game on. We probably got the balance a little wrong… but I liked the dare we showed and the intent with ball in hand," he said.
Soundly beaten at the contest, Longmuir also confirmed that former captain Nat Fyfe is edging closer to a return, albeit didn't commit to whether that return would be at AFL or WAFL level.
"He's been a week-by-week proposition, so until he gets the all clear we haven't broached where he's going to play, or his transition back into the team," he said.
Longmuir said Heath Chapman looks set to spend "a fair bit of time" on the sidelines after injuring his hamstring at training during the week.
