Senior coach Justin Longmuir says Fremantle are looking at ways to address their slow starts after going 40-points down in the opening term against Port Adelaide in round 11.

Freo stuck with Port Adelaide for the remaining three quarters in the 46-point loss, continuing a trend of showing they can match it against some of the best sides in the AFL, but only after giving up a sizeable lead early.

In round one against Melbourne, Fremantle conceded the first five goals in a 22-point loss. In round eight against Brisbane, the Lions kicked five of the first seven in a 24-point loss. In round nine against Essendon, the Bombers kicked the first three goals in a seven-point loss.

“It’s has to be something to do with our preparation leading into the game,” Longmuir told 7NEWS.

“I think we showed, from that first quarter onwards, that they weren’t that much better than us.

“To be 40 points down at quarter time wasn’t good enough. Our second and third quarter was better but we can’t allow teams to get on the front foot like that.

“We need to have a look at our prep and it will be better this weekend.”

Longmuir said Fremantle expect to be boosted by the returns of key forward Matt Taberner and defender Griffin Logue against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Optus Stadium.

“The early signs are really positive (with Taberner) and clearly we missed him on the weekend. We’ll welcome him back with open arms,” Longmuir said.

“We’re hoping Griffin will return, it was a pretty low-grade calf injury sustained last week. We’re hoping just the one week.

“He’ll train later in the week and, hopefully, he gets through.”

Longmuir also spoke about why Fremantle would not be taking any players at Wednesday’s mid-season rookie draft.

“We just feel that the guys that we would pick, they’ll be taken before we have an opportunity to pick them,” Longmuir said.

“We’ll just wait until the end of the year to fill our list spots.”

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