“Everyone’s got a great plan until you get punched in the face.”

Hayden Ballantyne has used a Mike Tyson quote to warn against assumptions Fremantle’s freshly stocked forward line will be more potent in 2019.

Ballantyne was optimistic on the back of key arrivals Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb, but cautious.

“I think our forward line, with a few more big guys down there, does look really good,” Ballantyne said.

“But everyone’s got a great plan until you get punched in the face, Mike Tyson said that, so we’ll wait and see what happens.”

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The 31-year-old goalsneak could be one of the key beneficiaries of the new big men, with his ability to crumb at their feet inside 50m.

“If you look at the start of last year when Matty Taberner was up and flying, how good our whole forward line was working in particular,” Ballantyne said.

Camera Icon Jesse Hogan is set to change the look of the forward line. Credit: Danella Bevis

“Us smalls could get to the feet of him and know where the ball was going to go so to have three really strong power forwards to get the ball into and crumb off just to create a contest is something really positive for the team. Really excited to get them down there and competition for spots there is only a good thing I think.”

Ballantyne said he was in good shape after pilates helped him avoid the soft tissue injuries that had plagued prior to this year. He managed 17 games in 2018, but admitted he had been inconsistent, just like the team.

“I came back, ran a pretty good time trial and I’m feeling really good about getting around the ground,” Ballantyne said.

But the veteran completed running away from the main group at training today alongside Joel Hamling and Travis Colyer.

Stephen Hill, Lobb, Michael Walters, Ed Langdon and Alex Pearce were the key absentees, while Hogan and Darcy Tucker were restricted to walking in the sand pit and kicking.

Shane Kersten and Harley Bennell were only briefly sighted before they headed back inside.

Veteran ruckman Aaron Sandilands continues to impress in his 17th pre-season. Sandilands, Nat Fyfe, David Mundy, Connor Blakely, Andrew Brayshaw and Reece Conca worked intensively on stoppages during the session.