Senior Coach Justin Longmuir has emphasised the importance of a strong midfield contest against Sydney in this Friday's Purple Hands Foundation game, highlighting the need to challenge Sydney's high-scoring on-ballers.

Longmuir earmarked a head-to-head battle in the middle of the ground ahead of Friday night and despite Sydney’s offensively sound midfield, Longmuir was adamant Fremantle’s core group of on-ballers would challenge the opposition. 

“We need to respect them, but we need to go back at them as well,” Longmuir said during his Wednesday morning press conference.

“We need to get our contest right, back ourselves in our team defence, and see how many opportunities we can create off the back of that.

“(Isaac) Heeney, (Chad) Warner, (Errol) Gulden, they can all hit the scoreboard.

“A lot is going to come down to our contest work and the work we do up the ground to stop those opportunities.”

Over the past three weeks the Swan’s main midfield brigade of Warner, Gulden and Heeney have combined for 10 goals. 

The Swans have kicked the second-most goals this year out of any team in the competition with 121 majors at an average of 15.1 per game, while Fremantle is ranking as the second-hardest team to score against from eight games this year, conceding only 544 points at an average of 68 per game.

“Sit back and be reactive against Sydney and they’ll rip you apart,” Longmuir said.

“You’ve got to get on the front foot and put some of our strengths on the table as well. The midfield is one of those.

Speaking on Nat Fyfe’s management as the substitute last week, Longmuir said the decision had been earmarked early in the season to give Fyfe a rest around round seven. 

“He’s in good form, he wants to play every week and he wants to be around the group,” Longmuir said.

“He’s clearly important to us and we want him out there as much as we can.

“Last week was the week we earmarked early in the season to be able to give him a rest.

“When he’s had his best game in a long time, he wants to keep that rolling and he feels like his footy is improving week on week. 

“Sometimes you’ve got to save those type of guys from themselves because he works so hard and puts it all on the line every week.

The Friday night clash will bouncedown at 6.30pm WST at Optus Stadium, with the Hand in Hand Crossing for Inclusion commencing from the East Perth end of the Matagarup Bridge at 4.30pm.