Fremantle Dockers star Hayley Miller heaps praise on young key forwards Georgie Brisbane and Tunisha Kikoak

Fremantle star Hayley Miller has heaped praise on the club’s young key forwards, saying their impact on the team this season has changed the way the Dockers play.

Georgie Brisbane and Tunisha Kikoak combined for three goals during the Dockers’ 6.11 (47) to 6.4 (40) win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday. Brisbane is only 18 and was Fremantle’s first pick in last year’s draft. Kikoak only received her chance in the AFLW as a replacement player last year but has seized every moment that has come her way.

Miller said knowing the club had powerful players who would constantly compete had allowed her to take a different approach to games.

“It’s great knowing that they’re there. It gives the rest of us a little bit of freedom to know that they’re going to be the option down the line - the tall option,” Miller explained.

“It’s really important to the structure of your forward line to have those types of forwards. I’ve loved what both of them have been able to bring. Georgie Brisbane has come in as a first year player, but she’s such a leader in her own right, and she will be for many years to come. I love her voice and direction in there.

“She reads the game really well, which is great, and she’s only going to get better. And obviously, TK is extremely athletic and brings the ball to ground. That’s all we ask from her. But she was taking some great marks and kicked a great goal, which is fantastic, and what we needed at a really crucial time.

“It’s great when you feel like everyone’s playing their role within the system. That’s happening all over the ground now We probably didn’t have that in the first few rounds of the season. We felt like our pre-season was really good, but we came away from that a little bit at the start of the season. We’ve sort of found our feet a little bit more, and everyone’s playing their role.”

The Dockers had plenty of opportunities against the Giants with the team generating 42 inside 50s. Inaccuracy, including three behinds from Miller, kept them under pressure throughout the match, but they charged home in the final quarter and kicked three goals to one to win their second match in a row.

“We probably should have had a few more goals than what we did. There were a lot of points. Too many points for my liking,” Miller said.

“Early on in the season, we weren’t getting enough opportunities. We’ve certainly got the opportunities now and we just need to make the most of those opportunities.

“Unfortunately, we left a few and out there, and probably myself included in that in a big way. It’s good to have a lot of those opportunities. We just need to get to work on putting them through the big sticks.”

Fremantle have to keep winning to keep their slim finals hopes alive. They’ve now beaten Melbourne and the Giants in successive weeks, and will face Richmond at home on Saturday before finishing the home-and-away season with a tough away clash against Adelaide.

Miller said knowing they couldn’t afford to lose any more matches had given the team a totally different edge. She said the Dockers were embracing the ‘win or go home’ pressure.

“Last week, knowing that we had to beat a really, really strong team in in Melbourne, and were able to do that, just gave us confidence to go from from there and be able to build on that,” she said.

“It’s a funny place to be in when you’ve got nothing to lose and you have to put it all out there. (Saturday) probably wasn’t, at least to start off with, our best brand of football, but we were able to claw it back and get the game going on our terms, which is really pleasing.

“We’ll just continue to build week on week. We know Richmond have had a tough season so far, but they had a great game against Adelaide couple of weeks ago. So we know they’ll be tough and be looking to redeem their season towards the back end. So we know we’ve got to put our best foot forward every every week.”