Players deviated from plan in Sydney heartbreaker: Longmuir
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir says the players deviated from the plan in the dying stages of their shattering three-point defeat to Sydney at Optus Stadium.
The home side held a slender lead heading into the dying stages of the pulsating clash, but poor decision-making and skill errors at inopportune times allowed the Swans to snatch a vital road victory with two late majors.
The Dockers’ alarming trend of failing to close out tight games condemned the men in purple to their sixth defeat in a row on Sunday, stretching back to the tale end of 2024.
In fact, across the last five home and away games, Fremantle has scored just seven points in the time on period of final terms while conceding a staggering 76.
However, Longmuir said he didn’t think his playing group were panicking; instead just not adjusting to late-game scenarios.
“It was a disappointing finish, clearly,” he told 7NEWS.
“I wouldn’t use the word panicking, (the players) probably just aren’t adjusting to what the game needs at certain times, and we reviewed some of those (on Tuesday).
“We still want to score in those moments. We don’t want to leave ourselves vulnerable defensively and open up the game for the opposition to score, so we covered off a couple of those moments, and we’ll learn from them next time out.
“I thought we did a lot right in that last quarter, dominated field position, got the contest right and created enough opportunity but just couldn’t quite put Sydney away.
“And then it became a little bit unpredictable late in the game, and we went away from the game plan we want to try and achieve in those moments.”
Fremantle has lost five of their last six games by 20 points or less.
Longmuir’s men now enter an all-important derby against bitter cross-town rivals West Coast, needing a win just to get their campaign underway and sitting just percentage off the bottom of the table thanks to the Eagles going down by 87 points in their round one clash with Gold Coast.
And the fifth-year coach believes the midfield tussle will be the key to unlocking Fremantle’s first win of the season.
“We’ll need to bring our best footy (against West Coast). They were really impressive on the weekend, their effort against Brisbane up there,” he said.
“I thought their pressure and ability to hunt the ball and man was really strong. So, we’ll have to be at our best around the contest.”
There is positive news on the injury front for the Dockers, with star duo Hayden Young and Sean Darcy on track to return to football within the next two weeks.
However, Longmuir flagged Darcy was likely to need time in the WAFL, where dual Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe will spend a third week this weekend.
“We’ll see how (Young and Darcy) go at training later in the week, especially Sean, and see how they are next week,” he said.
“In particular, Sean will likely need some WAFL time, and Youngy, we’ll work through.”