Senior coach Justin Longmuir has provided a comprehensive pre-season update on the squad as he featured on his first radio interview for the new year.

Reflecting on the team’s initial match simulations of the year, Longmuir was impressed by the team’s ability to embrace the tough conditions.

“We’ve had three reasonably large sessions in the space of five days counting Saturday when it was 41 degrees,” Longmuir told Adam Papalia on 6PR’s Wide World of Sports.

“That just presents another challenge the heat, and I think that’s a competitive advantage for us and West Coast to be able to test ourselves out and build resilience in those type of conditions.

“Not only does it test the aerobic ability and build that aerobic capacity, it gets them to fatigue a lot quicker, but it also tests their mind.
 
“Today I thought we took a step forward in our ability to communicate and put all the parts together, which is a good sign given we’ve only done a couple of sessions.”
 
Looking at competition for spots, Longmuir said he had been enjoying watching the battles between players.
 
“I think all across the ground we’ve got competition for spots which is great to have, I think our midfield battle at the moment has been really good to watch, we’ve got some big bodies in there,” Longmuir said.
 
“Fyfey (Nathan Fyfe) and Will Brodie are fully fit and keen to get a spot in the midfield, obviously the main three that finished in the midfield last year in Youngy (Hayden Young), Caleb (Serong) and Andy (Brayshaw) but also a couple of youngsters in (Matthew) Johnson and (Neil) Erasmus have taken a step forward with their conditioning, physical attributes and footy attributes as well so it’s just a really good competitive battle in there at the moment which I’m enjoying.

“Obviously the wings are an area of the ground which has been talked about a lot over the last couple of years, but I feel like Sharpy (Jeremy Sharp), (Nathan) O’Driscoll, (Heath) Chapman and Ethan Stanley - and a few of these guys - are really battling for those couple of spots as well, so we’ve got some good competition and they’re really driving each other.
 
“No spots are locked away yet, no magnets are on the whiteboard and all spots are open and up for grabs, so whilst that is there the competition will remain strong.”
 
Longmuir briefly touched on the ruck combination and Sean Darcy’s progress as he returns from ankle surgery.
 
“He (Darcy) took a good step forward today, he was in some of our competitive drills and a little bit more contact, so he’s progressing well. I would like him to be a little bit further along in aspects of his rehab, but he’s been taking steps forward and heading in the right direction,” Longmuir said.
 
“It would be a bit different if he was going backwards or standing still, but he’s taking steps forward each session and he took a big step forward being in some of the competitive drills, and will continue to build, but I have full faith he will be there by round one.

“I think externally sometimes people just see those two (Jackson and Darcy) as ruckmen and think how can you fit two rucks into a team, but I just don’t see it like that. Luke offers such a different skill set to Sean and we can use Luke in a number of different ways across the ground when Sean’s fully fit.
 
“I think those two offer good flexibility and they’re both not locked into having to play long minutes in the ruck, so it’s a bit of a different combination.”
 
Longmuir spoke on how the team is looking to improve the movement of the ball and scoring in attack.
 
“It’s continued education of when to take the game on and when you need to build the ball… I think at times last year we were criticised externally for our outside ball movement, but we just weren’t cashing in our faster play opportunities that we were creating.

"Sometimes that’s the leading patterns ahead of the ball and sometimes that’s using the ball going inside 50 and not quite executing as well as we could of, so we continue to work and to educate on that over the pre-season,” Longmuir said.

Longmuir said he had been impressed with Matt Taberner’s progress since returning from injury as well as the competition to fill Lachie Schultz’s vacancy.
 
“Tabs (Taberner) is going well, he hasn’t put a foot wrong. He’s done a mountain of work pre-Christmas and he’s come back post-Christmas and slid straight into all our training programs," Longmuir said

"He’s putting his hand up for a key position spot as well, so that’s creating good opportunities and some good competition forward of the ball."
 
“We’ve got a number of players who have put their hand up, someone like Bailey Banfield didn’t finish in the team last year because of injury and he’s just gotten fitter and stronger over the off-season and is really training well. Tommy Emmett came in for the last two games and performed really well, Sam Sturt played some really good footy for us last year so he’s hoping to take another step forward.

“We feel like we’ve got the personnel forward of the ball that can cash in on the good work up the ground and help us kick a winning score.

“We haven’t pencilled anyone’s name on the board, all spots are up for grabs, so that’s what’s going to make the next couple of months really competitive and really good to be a part of from a coaching team point of view.”
 
Longmuir said the four train-on players, including Daniel McKenzie who was recently added as a train-on player, have impressed as they battle for two vacant positions on the list.
 
“He (McKenzie) joined in for his first training session today… for those who don’t know he came to the club off the back of some longer-term injuries, and we feel like he’s seen the back of them now, so it’s about getting some work into him and giving him a trial before the deadline of the SSP (Supplemental Selection Period) comes up,” Longmuir said.
 
“Really happy with the way that the other three boys (Max Beattie, Patrick Voss and Sam van Rooyen) have attacked training. I feel like with our top-up players we’ve been able to get a good spread across the ground, and been able to get some good competition for spots in areas that at times we’ve been deficient in.”

Ultimately Longmuir said the group had learned from 2023 (finishing 14th ) and brought those lessons into training this pre-season.
 
“It feels like we learnt from dealing with the expectations last year and by the end of the year we’d been able to find our best footy and being able to go out there and play with the right mindset, and I feel players have been able to bring that mentality into pre-season,” Longmuir said.
 
“It just feels like we need to go out there and play our footy in the way we know that executes best and that’s really, really proactive, aggressive mindset and now’s the time to make sure we embed that, so we hit the ground running in round one.
 
“I’m really excited about what the season holds, and I’m really excited about what everyone is producing at the moment.”
 
The Supplemental Selection Period finishes on February 15. Fremantle can add two players during the SSP period or hold spots for the mid-season draft.