IT IS an unwritten law in football post-mortems that losing sides don’t use absent players as an excuse.

But Fremantle’s young gun Stephen Hill might have been more than a little worried when it was revealed that Hayden Ballantyne was to miss a month with a foot injury.

Ballantyne’s absence and the subsequent adjustments to Fremantle’s side resulted in Hill becoming the team’s no.1 small forward, which against North Melbourne means an afternoon of having Brady Rawlings on your tail.

Rawlings gave Hill an old-fashioned towelling, finishing with 39 disposals to seven in what North Melbourne coach Brad Scott described as “one of the more outstanding run-with roles I have ever seen”.

It might be a slight comfort to Hill to know that Ballantyne would have had to deal with the North Melbourne veteran if he was fit.

“If he (Ballantyne) was playing I probably would have had him to be honest,” Rawlings said after the game.

“We found out early in the week that he wasn’t going to play so we were able to prepare for those guys not being in the team. I probably would have played on Ballantyne if he played.”

Ballantyne was one of three big outs for Fremantle, joining Chris Tarrant and Aaron Sandilands on the sidelines. But Rawlings says he is confident North Melbourne would still have Fremantle’s measure had both teams been at full strength.

“It definitely helps. I think the way we approach the game and our pressure and attack today, it wouldn’t have mattered who they had in,” he said.

“It would have made a little bit of a difference but I think we still would have got up.”

Rawlings is widely regarded as one of the great students of the game and quickly identified Hill's strengths when he knew he had the job.

“Definitely his pace. He has got me in that department by a fair way. You’ve got to work out ways to stop him. It helps when you’ve got a few teammates helping you out as well. You try and use the body as well as you can to stop him from using his pace,” he said.