LEADERSHIP group member Lee Spurr has defended Zac Dawson’s place in Fremantle’s best 22, saying the veteran defender epitomises the brand of football they want to be known for this season.

Coach Ross Lyon’s continued faith in experienced personnel to drive the club’s rebuild was underlined yesterday when six players aged 30 or older were listed in the starting line-up for Sunday’s season opener against Geelong at Domain Stadium.

Dawson, 31, was named in a back pocket after being overlooked late last season in favour of younger tall Sam Collins.

Aaron Sandilands, Michael Johnson, David Mundy and Danyle Pearce will face the Cats from the senior core that lifted Fremantle to a 2013 grand final appearance, while Jon Griffin was named at full-forward after a strong pre-season.

Lyon bemoaned Fremantle’s lack of effective rebound from their back half last season as his side crashed to 16th spot and won only four matches.

Joel Hamling was the only fresh face in the Dockers’ starting back six yesterday as Geelong named Zach Tuohy, Tom Stewart and teenager Brandan Parfitt to make their debuts.

Spurr said Fremantle wanted to reclaim their identity in 2017.

He highlighted Dawson as a key figure and said they would again rely on a defensive model to win matches.

“I love playing with Zac and I know we love playing with Zac,” Spurr said.

“You know Zac is going to deliver. He’s going to execute his role to the best of his ability.

“We don’t rely on one person coming out and having 40 possessions and kicking four goals to drag us over the line.

“That’s not how we want to be known and that’s not how we want to play.

“At our best, our strengths have been everyone pulls their weight and we do it as a collective, which I think is a really strong brand of footy. That’s how we want to be perceived externally. We’re a team where you execute your role and we’re a weight-of-numbers team. Certainly Zac epitomises that.”

Fremantle named Hayden Crozier and Nick Suban on a seven-man interchange bench as they weigh up the best replacement in attack for Hayden Ballantyne (hamstring).

Hamling will make his Fremantle debut alongside fellow new faces Cam McCarthy, Bradley Hill and Shane Kersten.