Senior Coach Justin Longmuir says Fremantle have identified the factors that have affected the team’s ball movement in recent weeks after a return to form against the Western Bulldogs in round 21.
Freo took a season-high 18 marks inside 50 on Saturday at Marvel Stadium, ahead of their 15 against West Coast in round three and 14 against North Melbourne in round eight.
It came after Freo had struggled with their ball movement and had a run of one draw in three weeks between rounds 18 and 20, leading to commentary that opposition clubs had figured out how to limit Freo’s rebound off half back.
Speaking on 3AW, Longmuir agreed he had noticed the opposition trying different things but said his players were ultimately in control of how they moved the footy.
“It’s a mixture of a lot of different things. I don’t think our pressure had been at a level that it (returned to) on Saturday, and quite often when your pressure is at a good level it gives you good opportunities to hold position,” Longmuir told 3AW.
“Our pressure in that second quarter was through the roof and that created opportunities to go at their defence. That was something that was back.
“I think some of the stuff that we haven’t been getting right has been on us for not having the dare or the energy we had earlier in the year and it was nice to get back to that selfless team attitude and have a bit more attack with everything we did.”
Longmuir said the opposition had looked to bring ‘chaos’ into the game to disrupt Fremantle.
“We feel like teams haven’t been allowing us to get set defensively, which was a real strength early in the season,” Longmuir said.
“Teams have either been taking the contest a little bit quicker to send the game into a bit more chaos or looking to bounce a bit quicker so we don’t get set in our slow play defence. That’s a couple of things we’ve identified.”
Longmuir credited a forwardline led by Rory Lobb and his four goals for their positioning inside 50.
“We wanted our forwards to be a bit more dangerous. We’ve probably been a little bit stagnant in our forward line and I wanted our forwards to get on the move and see if we could connect a little bit more going inside 50,” Longmuir said.
“We took 18 marks inside 50 which was a fair bit higher than we’ve been averaging and probably our best for the year.
“I thought the supply that forwards got, (the midfielders and defenders) had a bit more speed on the ball at times. We definitely had more intent to go forward with our ball movement which was both positive and gave our forwards a better look.”
Coaches' votes: Lobb with the perfect 10
Each team's run home
