With the role of senior coaches becoming more and more limited on game day, there wasn’t much Justin Longmuir felt he could do once he wrapped up his three-quarter time address in Sunday’s RAC Derby.
At the time, Fremantle led by 17 points, and that lead was quickly cut to six following goals to Liam Ryan and Josh Kennedy.
The Eagles had kicked six of the past seven goals to cut Fremantle’s lead from 40 points to a single kick and Longmuir said it was largely up to the players to arrest the Eagles’ momentum and close out the win.
It meant relying on the much younger Freo Dockers to hold their nerve against the more experienced West Coast, with Freo fielding the youngest team in the AFL that round (24 years) compared to West Coast being the second oldest (27 years).
“You've just got to trust the players largely in that situation,” Longmuir told 3AW.
“There was a couple of things in that last quarter we tried to do from the coach's box but I think they had minimal impact, like Brett Bewley getting on Andrew Gaff's wing late in the game because he had plenty of run.
“Really, it was left to the players to remain on task, stay connected and execute at the end and I think it was the most pleasing thing.
“They looked like they were up for it and they reasserted themselves on the contest and brought really good pressure.
“That was mainly led through the midfield, I thought it was a great way for a young team to finish the game off.”
Longmuir was asked if it was his best win as a senior coach, with Freo missing the likes of Nat Fyfe, Michael Walters and Andrew Brayshaw.
“It was definitely right up there,” Longmuir said.
“As a coach, I don't think you sit there and rank your wins in order, but that one was pretty pleasing.
“We were pretty undermanned and they were coming at us really hard. I thought we showed a lot of spirit to hang on that last quarter.”
The stakes remain high for Fremantle heading into the final round, needing a win against St Kilda to have any chance of finishing in the top eight.
As well as beating the Saints, Freo need two losses from the other three teams vying for finals – GWS (against Carlton) , Essendon (against Collingwood) and West Coast (against Brisbane).
The AFL confirmed the game will be played on Sunday at 12.15pm EST (10.15am WST) but a venue is yet to be confirmed.
Longmuir said it would be ideal for Fremantle to return to Tasmania to avoid a quarantine situation when they return to WA. If the game was played in Victoria, it would be played in an empty stadium due to the current lockdown in Melbourne.
“To be honest, I haven't heard anything but that (Tasmania) would be an ideal situation for us,” Longmuir said.
“We've had two or three bouts of quarantine already this year and maybe we can get a crowd down there as well for the Saints.
“We'll just see where that sits at the end of the day, the AFL is probably trying to juggle a million balls in the air, so we'll just see where that settles.”
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