Senior Coach Justin Longmuir has flagged that the 39-point loss to Port Adelaide on Friday was a 'wakeup call' for some areas of the Club’s game.
Longmuir says the team will address their contest and outside work ahead of their round one clash with the Brisbane Lions in just over two weeks.
“It was a wakeup call and we’ll take a lot from that,” Longmuir said post-match.
“The post-clearance contested possession was minus 22 and we got out tackled minus 16, so we’ve got some work to do in those areas.
“Clearly they got on the outside of us way too much and as a result of that and the inaccuracy, we got stuck in our back half which is another area we’ve really worked hard on as well.
“I just think we weren’t decisive when the pressure came on and those lessons can really only be learnt when you’re playing opposition.
“They (Port) finished top four last year and they are just as good, if not better so to have that sort of challenge now and get a bit of a gauge of where we are at should really drive us over the next two weeks before round one."
Longmuir made note of the players missing from Fremantle’s forward line and how that affected the team's forward 50 entries.
“There was a fair bit of change in our front half which didn’t help but we’re not worried about any of them long-term. They will all be available round one,” he said.
“Four guys (Amiss and Jackson) came out of our forward line when you add Emmett and Freddy (Frederick), who played really well last week as smalls.
“A large part of getting stuck in your back half is not being able to get the contest right when you do go long."
Ahead of the round one clash with last year’s grand finalists Brisbane, Longmuir says the Club would prepare accordingly.
“We’ll have a bit of a lighter week this week in terms of how much the lads are at the Club and how much we train, and then have a good hit out on Saturday where we will come together and do some match sim and breakdown drills, then next week will be a pretty normal week heading into the Brisbane game.”
