Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir is continuing to urge his players to back themselves after a 'frustrating' performance from his team against Brisbane on Sunday.

Freo looked to be on the brink of a heavy loss before fighting back in the second half to get the final margin within four goals.

Longmuir said Fremantle performed much better when they took the game on and played naturally.

"First and foremost, our basics and the fundamentals of our game weren't good enough in the first half and they were much better at that," Longmuir told AFL 360.

"I think the simple thing is, we played a little bit too straight which played into their defender's hands.

"They've got some really strong key posts down there and some really good ground level players and we just played a little bit too straight.

"I thought in the second half we were a bit braver with the footy and we were able to change angles and that led to us marking the ball a bit more in our front half.

"That's something we wanted to do all game but we just couldn't buffer their pressure and do the basics well enough to expose that in the first half."

Longmuir said the late-game comeback only further highlighted that Freo had let the game slip early.

"(The feeling) was probably frustration (seeing Fremantle come back) because we had a few plans going into the game and we didn't feel like we executed them really well, especially in that second quarter when we let it slip," Longmuir said.

"The start of the third quarter was pretty ordinary as well. I was pretty happy with the way the players connected and stayed together and fought it out to the end but we've got to be better at the start, we can't be giving away a three-goal head start in the first quarter, on the road to a good team.

"There's plenty to review and plenty to learn from."

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