Fremantle are set to see another exciting young midfielder make the step up to AFL level in 2021 with Luke Valente impressing senior coach Justin Longmuir with his attitude both on and off the training track.

Longmuir addressed a group of more than 320 members in a Q&A at Fremantle’s Annual Members’ Meeting on Tuesday at The Esplanade Hotel.

He said the 20-year-old was a victim of circumstance in 2020, where non-selected players could only take part in occasional scratch matches with limited opportunities to push for selection.

“Luke came to the club with some groin issues (in 2019) and he probably got on top of that early this year. He was able to progress and get his training loads up to an AFL level towards the end of the year. His fitness is at AFL level now,” Longmuir said.

“Unfortunately for Luke, but also all of our players this year that were playing in the reserves, they didn’t get to play an 18 on 18 game, so it was really hard to judge them and probably a little bit more difficult for them to develop in some aspects.

“We’re really impressed with the way Luke is growing in his football career. There was some real consideration into giving him a go at AFL level. We felt like he deserved an opportunity at AFL level this year but there was probably too many midfielders going well. We saw three of them up here before (Adam Cerra, Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong), they were probably holding him out of the spot.

“We’ve got strong confidence that Luke can become not only a very good AFL footballer, but we have high hopes for him to be someone who can influence others at the football club.

“He’s a person of high work ethic, high character and someone that’s going to really add to our group.”

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Longmuir also addressed Fremantle’s tall forward depth when asked if he would consider playing key defender Alex Pearce as a forward when he returns from injury.

“(Playing forward) is something that we probably wouldn’t do with Alex. Just because he hasn’t played footy for a long time and has obviously played a lot of footy down back,” Longmuir said.

“We do need some contingency plans around our forward line and especially our tall forwards. We’ve probably only got two genuine tall forwards on our list in Matt Taberner and Rory Lobb.

“Nat Fyfe will spend a little bit more time forward to give us that aerial contest.

“It’s a good question and we’ll probably look to see how it unfolds over the pre-season but I think it’s really important with Alex coming back from a long term injury that we keep him in a position where he is familiar.

“Although our backline really stood up this year and we’re really proud of their efforts, having a bit more height down there will really help our contests. It’s something that probably let us down a little bit and having Alex back there with his leadership will be important for us.”