Fremantle have made no secret of their off-season plans with the Club targeting a mix of forwards and outside run in the upcoming draft and trade periods.
There will be no shortage of opportunities in the draft, especially if Freo once again prioritise local talent, with more than a handful of highly ranked players set to come out of the WA system in 2021.
But even if Fremantle add to their tall forward depth, senior coach Justin Longmuir told 10 News Perth that he would still be happy to go into the 2022 season with the trio of Matt Taberner, Rory Lobb and Josh Treacy.
“The thing this year, is we never really had ‘Lobby’ and Taberner playing together, we need to get that right first,” Longmuir said.
“We feel ‘Lobby’ can be a really high-quality ruck-forward, one of the better ones in the comp if we get him out there often enough to compliment ‘Tabs’.
“Clearly those two need to work better together and we feel like we’ve picked a good one in Josh Treacy, who got a number of games this year but his development’ is all ahead of him.
“For someone who’s a rookie pick to play 15 games this year is a great step. We feel like he’s got a lot of improvement in him, and that gives us three talls.
“(Treacy is) a bit more mobile and able to get around the ground. He gives us something different in the forward line…he comes at the foot really well with his leading patterns and he brings a lot of aggression. We’re pretty excited about what he can bring.”
Longmuir said he was hopeful of Fremantle bringing in a number of quality young players, with what is likely to be a strong draft hand due to Adam Cerra’s request to be traded back to Victoria.
“We think we’ve done well at the draft in the last three or four years, that’s set us up really well and we’re not going to give away any of those draft picks for not the right player. If we end up going to the draft, I’ll be really happy,” Longmuir said.
“We need to get another midfielder into the door, however that comes about. We would love to have kept ‘Cez’, he’s someone that is a high draft pick, we’ve invested a lot of time into.
“Players come and leave clubs all the time and we’re confident we can fill the void, we’re confident that on the list at the moment we can fill the void as well. We feel like we’ve got the pieces in place, minus ‘Cez’, and we just need to get to work now.”
Indicative draft order ahead of Trade Period
Each club's trade plans
JL's impatience
