Senior Coach Justin Longmuir believes the Club’s midfield group has been a ‘real strength’ so far in season 2024 but will once again face another big challenge this weekend when the Club meets with Port Adelaide on Saturday night. 

“I just think we’ve got a good mix going through there,” Longmuir said to the media Wednesday morning.

“We’ve got some bigger bodies than we had last year consistently, and Andy (Brayshaw) and Caleb (Serong) are not only giving us the inside grunt but the outside run.

“I thought they were great against Carlton on the weekend.

“Not only their ability to hunt the ball, but to hunt the man and force Carlton first possession into our clearances.”

Fremantle won the clearance battle 44 - 27 against Carlton in the narrow defeat on Saturday, with Longmuir flagging Port Adelaide’s midfield group as another challenge the Club was looking forward to tackling. 

“We need to do a bit of work on making sure we cash in on that dominance (clearance wins), but I thought our midfield has been a real strength of ours for the first four weeks of the year,” Longmuir said.

“You are going to get another great challenge for them this week against one of the better midfields in the competition.

“They’ve got a good mix of inside and outside, speed, agility, pressure and ball winning ability, so they are up there.

“As a midfield group we’ve shown we are really accountable, run really strong defensive patterns when required and then win it and get it going our way to test the opposition out.”

The clash will see two of the most inform midfielders in Caleb Serong and Connor Rozee battling it out in the middle. 

Rozee is coming off a 36 disposal and three goal game against Essendon last Friday, while Serong’s blistering start to the season sees the 23-year-old currently sit fourth overall for disposals (135 at an average of 33.8 per game), fourth overall for contested possessions (63), and sixth overall for clearances, ranking as elite in all three categories.

Fremantle and Port Adelaide will face off in the primetime Saturday night fixture at Adelaide Oval at 5.30pm WST, with Longmuir preparing for a passionate crowd.

“I know the crowd gets really up and about and supports them heavily,” Longmuir said.

“We’ll be ready for that.”