Senior coach Justin Longmuir has said the Walyalup playing group will focus on their goal kicking following a 4.15 outing against Sydney on the weekend.

Walyalup has kicked 99.101 so far in the 2024 season from their 223 shots at goal (eighth most in the competition), but place 15th in the competition for scoring accuracy going at 44.4% in front of goal. 

“When you get supply and shots on goal but you are down on the scoreboard it’s frustrating for the players, so we need to continue to work on that,” Longmuir said during his Wednesday morning media conference.

“We don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill and blow this up.

“We just want to make sure we are developing our game and developing individuals in certain areas of their game so they can finish better.”

Longmuir admitted that the Club would put more focus on goal kicking and forward 50 drills at this week’s main training session ahead of the clash with Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) on Saturday.

“There is not much you can do coming off a five-day break last week, so we missed a few things out, but we will get back to training what we were training leading up to the Western Bulldogs and Richmond game,” Longmuir said.

“We will get back to training those and focusing on those to see if we can get a bit more bang for buck.

“It’s not always set shots either… It’s probably the snaps and making the most of some of those half chances which we made nothing of on the weekend.”

Key forward Josh Treacy has been a standout for Fremantle, averaging 2.1 goals a game (above average) at a scoring accuracy of 73.1 per cent (elite) competition-wide.

During round seven and eight against the Bulldogs and Richmond, Walyalup kicked 29.24 In front of goal before their 4.15 outing against Sydney over the weekend.

The 39 points scored is the equal lowest score Walayalup has kicked at home since round 20 of 2022, when Fremantle kicked 5.9 against Naarm.

When asked about the forward line structure, Longmuir remained optimistic but admitted consistent changes to the line-up had created challenges.

“It doesn’t help (Luke Jackson having to ruck in the absence of Sean Darcy) and that’s why we want to get continuity with him (Darcy) because it helps our structure,” Longmuir said.

“Luke down there helps out connection and contest.

“The other thing is we are a pretty young forward line, especially with Sonny (Michael Walters) out of it on the weekend as the substitute.

“We were pretty young down there.”

Waylaylup’s starting forward line-up against Sydney of Sam Switkowski, Michael Frederick, Bailey Banfield, Treacy, Jye Amiss and Pat Voss had a combined average age of just 22.8 years, with Switkowski coming in as the most senior player of the six at 27-years-old.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash with Euro-Yroke, Longmuir said he anticipates a strong contested match.

“They (Euro-Yroke) have been in a lot of close games, been really hard to play against and probably at times are a bit similar to us and have found it a struggle to score and make the most of their inside 50s,” Longmuir said.

“They defend really well and their contest and work rate across the ground makes them a really good running side.

“We are expecting a really tough physical game.”