Senior Coach Justin Longmuir has backed young key forward Josh Treacy to fill the boots of Matt Taberner, who will miss Saturday’s clash with Geelong with a hamstring strain.

Treacy has played once this season, kicking 1.1 against Adelaide in round one, and had 15 appearances in his debut season in 2021.

He has since come out of the team as Longmuir moved to utilising just the two key forwards playing Taberner alongside Rory Lobb, who has rotated through the ruck.

While Taberner may be Fremantle’s most potent forward, Treacy brings an increased level of pressure. He had five more tackles inside 50 than any other Fremantle player in 2021, despite missing seven games.

Longmuir admitted the absence of Taberner was a blow but backed Treacy to stand up to the challenge and fit into Fremantle’s system.

“We’ve been really role-driven since I got to the Club and I’ll always have confidence in bringing Josh Treacy in to fill that role,” Longmuir said.

“He’s shown a real ability at AFL level to give us a really strong contest and play his role.

“I’ve been really impressed with the selfless attitude of our forwards and not only that, the complete buy-in into our defensive pressure and system. I’m really confident that JT can come into the team and play a role."

Fremantle haven’t played in Geelong since round 22 of the 2018 season, meaning Treacy will be one of more than a handful of players heading to the ground for the first time.

From Fremantle’s starting 22 against Carlton, only Darcy, Brennan Cox, David Mundy, Alex Pearce and Michael Walters played in what was a historic 133-point loss.

Longmuir said Fremantle will have time on Friday to get acclimatised at the ground.

“We’ll do our meetings there and get a captains run on the ground,” Longmuir said.

“We’ll get a bit of a look at it, there’s a lot of players that haven’t played there before and it will be good to get there and have a look at the surrounds. I feel like that’s the ideal prep for Saturday.”

Bouncedown for the game is at 1.45pm EST (11.45am WST) but will be delayed on free to air into WA.

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