At the Esplanade Hotel in the heart of Fremantle, Justin Longmuir takes the stage.

He’s addressing a room of 500 of Fremantle’s most passionate supporters who are attending the Club’s Annual Members’ Meeting.

If you’ve ever wanted to pick Longmuir’s brain, this is the best way to do it, especially because he will be straight up with his answers.

Of his many attributes, Longmuir’s honesty and authenticity are some that stand out in his role as senior coach.

They’re invaluable traits when dealing with players and fellow coaches.

But not so much when addressing a room of members with the media in attendance.

Especially when the question is “so, what are the plans for the draft?”

This is nightmare fuel for Longmuir, who wants nothing more than to be honest and give that insight. Instead, he passes the blame quite brilliantly while looking towards where Peter Bell is sitting.

“Belly will kill me if I say the draft order! You can see him over there sweating. He’s thinking, ‘we’ve got one more day to get through without JL stuffing it up!’”

30 MONTHS EARLIER…
Head of Player Personnel David Walls didn’t know it at the time, but the work on Fremantle’s 2021 draft class first began in 2019.

That year, of the countless games he watched in person, he attended six Carey Grammar games, with the school located about 10km east of the MCG.

He and the recruiting team were there to watch the likes of Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Nick Daicos.

But someone else also stood out - eventual 2021 rookie selection Karl Worner.

“It was the blonde hair, he has it from his Swedish side of the family, it made him so easy to recognise” Walls said.

DRAFT DAY
Walls and Fremantle’s recruiting team arrive at Marvel Stadium for the first round of the draft, along with the precious list of names that Longmuir was alluding to on Tuesday night.

After more than two years of work analysing and interviewing hundreds of young footballers, this list is distilled to a simple A4 sheet of 39 names, which includes Worner.

On the other side of the country in a box at RAC Arena, Bell, Longmuir, Simon Garlick and Bob Murphy also settle in.

Garlick has that very list of names printed out in front of him.

Before the draft, Walls explained just how protective Fremantle need to be of those names.

“I don't think anyone, until you work in recruiting, can appreciate just how crucial even little snippets of information are in terms of your order and who you're interested in,” Walls said.

“That’s why we protect it as much as we can, and we pride ourselves on other clubs and the media not knowing what we're going to do, because there's no benefit to us in anyone else knowing. It can just be so detrimental.”

The WA and Victorian draft rooms are linked by Zoom, the WA contingent can see what the recruiting team are doing, but they remain muted.

“Wallsy looks worried,” Garlick notes.

“He always looks worried,” jokes Bell.

Walls has every reason to be on edge. There’s been rumours all day that Hawthorn, who hold pick seven (after the bids), are trying to do a deal with Richmond, who hold pick nine.

Fremantle hold alternating picks at eight and 10.

Walls said in our interview on the morning of the draft that Hawthorn may be looking to slide down the order with their first round pick.

“Hawthorn are probably thinking they can get the same player at pick nine that they would get at seven, and then they may also get something nice from Richmond in return,” Walls said.

“Richmond are probably thinking they need to get ahead of Fremantle to get the player that we really want. Because they might think that we're a strong chance to pick someone at eight that they’re after at nine.”

As the minutes tick down, the Fox Footy broadcast gives everyone a break from the waiting game.

Discussion briefly turns to the hosts.

“Sarah Jones is in purple, that’s a good sign,” Longmuir says.

“Is that mauve? Must be an homage to Freo,” replies Murphy.

“It feels like something is about to go down,” says Garlick, who still has the potential pick swap on his mind.

The draft begins, and as Adelaide are making their selection at six, Walls unmutes himself. He says Hawthorn, who are about to be on the clock, want to make a deal.

He says that making the deal protects us from the Hawks trading with Richmond but indicates he is leaning against making the trade and goes back on mute.

Meanwhile Hawthorn’s five minutes on the clock begins, and they haven’t made their pick. The Fox Footy broadcast shows their recruiters busy on their phones.

It looks like they’re making a trade.

Draft manager Dave McMullin unmutes himself from Victoria.

“There’s one minute to go and they’re still on the clock.”

The stress levels rise. If they were going to make a pick, they would have done it already.

While it looks like the Hawks are trying to make a trade, we find out later there was an error in the system preventing them from submitting their selection.

The clock runs out. Nothing happens.

Walls unmutes. “They’re having some issue with Champion Data.”

“I see a thumbnail on the screen,” says Walls referring to the system that’s now registered the pick.

“White jumper, dark hair. That’s Josh Ward.”

Eventually the Hawks’ pick is confirmed and Walls unmutes one more time. It’s Fremantle’s turn to make their selection.

“Jye?”

Bell gives a thumbs up to the screen, and Amiss officially becomes a Fremantle Docker.

Eventually the pick is announced and Brad Johnson on the broadcast is buoyant, saying “Fremantle are 12 months away from challenging for a premiership.”

“Good to see he’s read the Strategic Plan,” quips Bell.

The rest of the day goes smoothly. As the Tigers take key defender Josh Gibcus, Fremantle take their second West Aussie in midfielder Neil Erasmus.

Speaking after the draft, Walls explains why Hawthorn approached Fremantle to make a trade.

“We think they were interested in Matthew Johnson and Josh Ward and eventually took Ward,” Walls said.

“We had a feeling that Ward wanted to stay in Victoria, and on the back of what's just happened with Adam Cerra, I think Hawthorn knew that we would have been a bit gun shy with picking him.

“Potentially, they were thinking they could get Ward after our selection because of that risk, meaning they could try and make a deal with us to slide back in the order.”

As Walls said earlier, any snippet of information in another club’s hands can be costly.

BACKSTAGE
From the third floor of RAC Arena, we took the lift to the ground floor where Fox Footy’s WA broadcast was being held with three West Australian draft invitees in attendance; Amiss, Erasmus and Johnson.

Amiss and Erasmus were already decked out in their Fremantle jumpers and surrounded by family, friends and the media.

Only metres away, in full view of everyone, was Johnson. He was still in his Subiaco polo, sitting quietly with his family and waiting for his name to be called out.

As I interviewed both Amiss and Erasmus for the Fremantle website, I braced myself that Johnson’s name could be called at any moment, anticipating an eruption from his support crew that would potentially interrupt the interview.

Both Amiss and Erasmus are close friends with Johnson, so it would make a good moment on camera.

Except that eruption never came.

The first round would finish, the broadcast would wrap up and Erasmus goes over to console his Subiaco teammate.

As did Longmuir, reassuring him he would get picked in round two, without indicating that Fremantle had already decided on Johnson with their first pick of the second round - barring some miracle trade offer.