Senior coach Justin Longmuir says Michael Walters remains one of Fremantle’s most important leaders despite the star forward recently making the decision to step aside from the leadership group.

Walters informed Longmuir of his intentions on Monday ahead of the leadership vote, which was unveiled on Wednesday with Nat Fyfe named captain for a sixth year as part of a five-player leadership group with David Mundy, Alex Pearce, Andrew Brayshaw and new addition Caleb Serong.

Longmuir said that Walters felt it was time to make way for some youth in the leadership group, with the 21-year-old Serong taking his place.

“He came and had a chat to me and he asked my thoughts on it and told me that he’d like to step aside to give some younger players an opportunity to take up those leadership roles and titles,” Longmuir told SEN WA.

Longmuir said that Walters’ leadership would remain essential to the team.

“I was happy to accept that step aside as long as he didn’t stop being a leader around the club,” Longmuir said.

“We need Michael’s leadership, he’s tremendous in bringing energy to the group and is tremendous at passing his experiences on to our younger players.

“He’s been a real leader of our forwardline over the pre-season. He’s assured me that this is going to still happen and he’s as invested as ever.

“Sonny will keep being Sonny, he just won’t be going to the leadership meetings.”

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Longmuir also gave an update on how Liam Henry is settling into his new role on the wing, saying the 20-year-old was impressing with his running and ability to work to the team’s structure.

“Last week he showed some real form in our intraclub. He’s still working through aspects of his game to get them up to really high AFL standard with his disposal and a few other things in terms of his contest,” Longmuir said.

“He’s made massive improvements on that over the pre-season, what’s really impressed me is his running ability. There is a lot of structure that you have to hold as a winger in modern day football and especially around the different stoppage structures. He’s doing a good job at understanding those.

“It’s a really important role to be able to get your own position right and then communicating (that). He’s getting a lot right and is clearly going to keep on developing as the pre-season games unfold.

“He’s in really good order at the moment and his form’s been really strong on the wing and we’ll continue to push that with him.”

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