The ‘competition for spots’ narrative that has followed Fremantle’s summer isn’t restricted just to Freo’s deep backline, with Senior Coach Justin Longmuir stating he will also find it difficult to fit every deserving player into Fremantle’s attack.

In a Q&A with members for Fremantle’s season launch on Thursday, Longmuir was questioned about Freo’s forwardline depth.

“I think we’ve got healthy competition in the forward line group,” Longmuir said.

“We still haven’t set on our preferred structure down there, we haven’t locked it away in cement, where we could possibly play three talls.”

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Longmuir highlighted a number of names who were pushing for selection who didn’t play in Fremantle’s’ recent AAMI Community Series game.

“Josh Treacy is doing a good job at Peel working on his game and fitness, and we have Sam Sturt, Joel Western and a few others. Jye Amiss has come back into match sim in the past couple of weeks,” Longmuir said.

“I think we’ve got good competition for spots down there, I think we’re functioning really well as a forward line.

“We’ve got a lot of players, especially our small forwards are really flexible with the roles they can play in the forward line.

“No-one’s feeling comfortable with their position and their spot in the team. It’s tracking well.”

Longmuir was asked specifically if it was form or fitness that kept Sturt out of Fremantle’s practice matches.

“Sturty has been hampered with his body over the pre-season,” Longmuir said.

“He’s missed a little bit of pre-season compared to some of our other forwards through the injuries sustained at the end of last year.

“He’s back at 100 per cent now. He’s played good footy and full game time at Peel the last couple of weeks and now he’s just competing for a spot in our forward line.

“I do like his skillset. He brings really good speed and really good aerial to his role. We’ll look to give him opportunity if his form maintains at the level it is.”

In the off-season, Fremantle brought in Jaymie Graham to be the new forward line assistant coach, and Longmuir said Graham promotes a selfless attitude with the group that in turn leads to more opportunities.

“He’s brought a team-first philosophy and made it really clear that it’s not about individuals, it’s about us as a forward line working well together and producing good options for the mids and the backs,” Longmuir said.

“Hopefully, you’ve noticed that some of our forward craft has taken a step forward. I think Michael Frederick is a good example of that, he’s added some forward craft to his speed and it’s resulted in him taking marks inside 50.

“I think all of our forwards are really working well together and providing good options for the ball carrier and they’ve really bought into a mentality of being a group of six looking to score rather than six individuals.”

Longmuir acknowledged that Fremantle’s accuracy was below par in the AAMI Community Series against West Coast, kicking 11.13 (79).

It came a week after Fremantle kicked 22.9 (141) in a practice game against West Coast the week prior.

“Our goalkicking let us down a little bit at the weekend, but I’m not too concerned just yet over it,” Longmuir said.

“We’ve done a mountain of work over the pre-season on our routines and our players have been really purposeful with the way we’ve practiced our goalkicking.

“We’ll try not to get too reactive on one event, which the weekend was. Previous to that we kicked really well in our intraclubs and really well in our first pre-season game. I trust the work we’ve done in that area.”