Fremantle Senior Coach Justin Longmuir believes a lack of connection to the forward line has proved costly over the previous three rounds.
West Coast led at quarter time 25-3 in Saturday night's RAC Derby despite Fremantle leading the inside 50 count 16 -7 in the first term.
“We started the way we wanted to start but then got no reward for effort early,” Longmuir said post-match.
“They dominated the air.
“Down the other end (forward) we’ve been off with our connection since round three."
Fremantle’s first goal didn’t come until midway through the second quarter courtesy of Luke Jackson, with the Eagles holding a firm lead on the game.
“We haven’t been finding our forwards and taking our opportunities in front of goal,” Longmuir said.
“That bit us on the backside tonight when we should have had a bit more scoreboard pressure early."
On top of lack of scoreboard pressure, Longmuir emphasised the fact that West Coast were able to win the contested ball.
“Probably from the 20-minute mark of the first quarter and for two and a half quarters we were smoked in the contest,” Longmuir said.
“Once they got on top on the scoreboard, we started getting reactive, started getting led to the ball, and started becoming unpredictable to one-another.
“If we look at our game over the first five weeks, we’ve been very good with pressure, very good with contest, very good with our ground ball, but all that was off tonight."
Looking forward, Longmuir believes the round six clash against the Western Bulldogs next Saturday at Optus Stadium in front of home fans would be a welcome addition following a stint of three away fixtures.
“We’ve had close losses, we’ve had good wins, and now we’ve had a really poor defeat,” Longmuir said.
“We will review them like we review all our other games.
“It’s a brutal season, it’s a brutal fixture, it throws up some of these as a result sometimes and we’ve just got to review it, own our part and move on.
“Two home games in six rounds is a tough fixture so we look forward to getting home in front of our home crowd and getting after the Bulldogs.”
