Senior coach Justin Longmuir is heading into the 2022 season with an optimistic mindset due to having a close to fully fit list of players who are fitter and stronger compared to this time last year.

The group has played significant match sim minutes this summer, including four quarters on Saturday, as Fremantle work on perfecting the game plan ahead of round one on 20 March against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

On Saturday ruckman Sean Darcy and midfielder Darcy Tucker only played the opening half while fellow midfielder Will Brodie sat out the game, with all three dealing with what Longmuir described as ‘minor injuries’ that won’t affect their round one chances.

Darcy trained with the main group on Tuesday and is expected to take part in match sim minutes later this week.

“Sean, probably three weeks ago, had a little bit of Achilles tightness,” Longmuir said.

“We gave him a couple of sessions off. He’s done all the work for the past couple of weeks and then he got a knock on it in match sim.

“There’s a bit of bruising and we expect him to come up for this Friday and he shouldn’t (have) any issues.”

Tucker and Brodie will sit out any practice matches this week but are set to play at least one of the two upcoming games against West Coast on 25 February at Optus Stadium (lock out) and 6 March at Fremantle Oval (open to the public).

“We’ve picked up a couple of niggling injuries to Darcy Tucker – he had a minor hammy on the weekend, so he’ll miss the game. Will Brodie…they’re smaller injuries that have probably cut us a bit short (in the midfield),” Longmuir said.

“Dave (Mundy) returning helps and (Nat) Fyfe is on the way back. They’ll all minor.

“(Fyfe) will do majority of training today, he’ll be out of a bit of contact but we’ll look to get some game time into him, either the second West Coast game or the week after that.

“(Brodie) will be right for next week.”

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Longmuir said he’s been pleased to see a number of players get midfield minutes this summer.

“With Dave and Fyfey being out, Caleb Serong had a little finger injury which stopped him playing inside mid (in January), we’ve been able to give a lot of minutes to a lot of players through our midfield,” Longmuir said.

“Will Brodie has impressed with what he’s done. Connor Blakely’s improved aspects of his game. Mitch Crowden has moved inside. Darcy Tucker’s moved back into the midfield.

“They’ve all had good pre-seasons and they’ve all put their hand up. We’ll look to give them opportunity over the next three weeks to prove themselves.”

Longmuir said there were a number of reasons behind why he believes the team has improved on last pre-season.

“We’re definitely ahead, it’s another year under the belt of the same system and players are getting a better understanding of what we expect of them,” Longmuir said.

“I feel like the way we lead our lives and the behaviours we live and the standards that we accept have gone to a new level and all those things together have put us in a better position.

“We’ve had a lot of players do the work and that’s left us in a better position physically. We’re lifting heavier in the gym.

“Some of that is natural maturity of some of our younger players and some of it is higher expectations. We’ve had a lot of players do a lot of pre-season and it’s left us in a good spot.”

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