Demons trainer ignores Fritsch’s criticism

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Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin jumped on Bayley Fritsch’s defense after criticizing the Demons leading scorer as the AFL’s “fake badass”.

A Fritsch bump in a scoring contest in Saturday night’s MCG draw left Hawthorn defenseman Denver Grainger-Barras to heal a sore shoulder and angered former Hawks champ Dermott Brereton.

But Goodwin had “absolutely no problem” with the incident and supported Fritsch’s approach.

“He’s doing everything right,” Goodwin said.

“People are looking for things to talk about and that’s clearly something people wanted to talk about, but that’s okay from my point of view.

“Bayley is the cleanest and fairest player I have met and he will continue to be.

“It’s his nature, it’s the way he plays football.”

Speaking on SEN this week, Brereton said Fritsch had “picked” Grainger-Barras and listed other incidents where he felt the Melbourne striker should have been given further consideration.

On one occasion, Fritsch pushed Essendon’s Nick Hind into a post, while on another occasion he overtook North Melbourne’s Tom Powell with high defense.

Fritsch was offered a one-game suspension for hitting Powell, but had it overturned by the court.

“Bayley Fritsch is a serious player, but he has a certain form when he takes on the opponent when maybe that is not what he should have done,” said Brereton.

Fritsch leads Melbourne’s goals with 35 goals in 16 appearances this season and sits eighth in the Coleman medal standings.

He’ll again be a crucial part of the Demons’ offensive mix when they face the West Bulldogs in a table-top clash on Saturday night.

Fritsch scored three goals when Melbourne beat the Bulldogs by 28 points in the 11th round.

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