Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir concedes his team can’t seem to handle the heat when the pressure reaches a certain level, with the Dockers’ finals hopes now hanging by a thread.
The Dockers dropped from eighth to 12th on the ladder on the back of Sunday’s 64-point mauling at the hands of Brisbane.
It means Fremantle need to beat West Coast and St Kilda and hope other results fall their way in order to reach the finals for the first time since 2015.
Fremantle have won just two of their ten games this year against sides who are currently sitting inside the top eight.
(Photo by Jono Searle/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
The Dockers won the inside-50 count against Brisbane on Sunday, but they lost the tackles 71-35 in a damning stat.
Speaking after the 18.10 (118) to 8.6 (54) loss, Longmuir said his team’s intensity wasn’t good enough when they confront heavyweight sides.
“That’s been a bit of a theme against the better sides – we’ve got a level at the moment that we can play at, and once teams bring more than that, we can’t absorb that and can’t play our way,” Longmuir said.
“As I said to the players after the game, we need to make sure we learn those lessons.
“They’re hard lessons at the moment, but we need to improve from games like this and we need to set our standards a lot higher so we can start mixing it with teams that play at a top-four level.”
The Dockers had jumped into eighth spot on the back of their thrilling four-point win over Richmond in Round 20.
Longmuir had warned his players not to get caught up in the hype surrounding their finals chances, but it seems his advice fell on deaf ears.
“I think sometimes as a player you read all the good press, you get all the pats on the back after a good effort last week,” Longmuir said.
“It doesn’t take much of a lowering of preparation for you to get whacked in this game, especially when you come up against good sides. We got a lesson (against Brisbane).
“I just think our level of efficiency with ball in hand gets questioned under real pressure of a top-four team.”
The Dockers will need to lick their wounds ahead of a crunch western derby clash with West Coast.
Lukey Miller
Guest
Longmuir would be quietly optimistic with his Dorks this year. A young team with an over-active injury list has clearly performed above expectations. The Dockers have developed a lot of young players this year and should be a handful next year.
Macca
Roar Rookie
Yep, and they were the last team to make the 8 with just 11 wins, both in 2013 (after Essendon got kicked out) & 2010 (with a percentage of 108.07%) But given the definition of "fluke" includes "noun - an unlikely chance occurrence" it would also be a fluke if Freo (or any team) made finals with just 11 wins and a percentage below 100% given how rare that is historically.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
A fluke is when Carlton plays finals after finishing 9th.
Macca
Roar Rookie
2019 8th place had 12 wins and 95.4% to make finals 2018 8th place had 13 wins and 131.6% 2017 8th place had 12 wins and 105.7% 2016 8th place had 12 wins and 105.2% 2015 8th place had 13 wins and 106.5% If Freo make it with 11 wins and a percentage well below 100% "fluke" seems pretty accurate
ScottD
Roar Guru
Walker looked very good.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
It wasn’t the young Freo players that couldn’t cope it was the older ones especially Taberner, Wilson and Colyer and not so old experienced first rounders Logue and Tucker who can’t handle pressure. Hamling is a big out as well.
Jonboy
Roar Rookie
Full credit to Walker, Young, Serong, Brayshaw and Treacy to show some guts. Mundy and Ryan not at there best but tried hard. Taberner, Wilson, Logue and Tucker Haven’t got what it takes and need moving on. A run in the WAFL would help Henry and Western to find a bit of confidence.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Strange thinking, Liam. How is finishing top 8 a fluke?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
The addition of Fyfe, Walters, Lobb, Cox, Chapman, Hamling, Sturt, Frederick, Switkowski should help too. Still, if Essendon drop one (against the Suns?), Freo still play finals. GWS, Richmond and WC all need to win everything. At least one of them is eliminated next week.
ScottD
Roar Guru
Pretty honest comments. Freo are very good when they aren't under pressure but nobody would question the fact that this year they have wilted when the blowtorch was applied. They are legitimately a team that deserves to be place somewhere in the middle (7-14th) on the ladder. That is what the results all year say. The real positive for me is that I quite like (now) the way they play and I can see them being able to translate that into a grand final with a bit more polish and finesse. The first step is to be more consistent in their effort. The start of the first qtr and the 3rd qtr they showed what they can do but instead of doing it for only 30-40 mins then need to bring that for 4 qtrs. I see Don F noted they won the inside 50 statistic which is great, but as he and others have noted that is the start of what you need to do not the end. Failure to convert field position into goals has hurt us for the last 3-4 years. In pre-season this year, nobody (except for maybe Don F) was shouting about Freo making the top 5 this year. Most people were placing them just outside the 8 and so it has proved. Freo are a young team and have struggled to put it together for 4 qtrs this year but they have shown what they are capable of. Next year they will be the same team with an extra 22 games under their belt and the "youth card excuse" won't fly. Failure to make top 5 next year will be counted as a fail by me.
Macca
Roar Rookie
Hard to tell but I would say we would have significant space still when you consider; 1) Martin has had most of his salary paid already and will only be on $200-$300k next year 2) McGovern is going into year 4 of a 5 year contract which again was front ended 3) Williams had his contract front ended and will be on significantly less next year than this year 4) Charlie Curnow is going into the 4th year of a massively front ended contract and will be on about the same as Martin 5) Murphy will retire (likely not on big money but on multiples of a draftee) 6) Cripps did take a pay cut - which is perfectly in line with his character, unlike pretending to take a pay cut. 7) McKay signed with the Blues for much less than he was offered elsewhere so while it would be a significant jump it would be more than covered by the reduction in Martin's wage. 8) Most of Martin & Curnow's wage plus some of Williams was paid for from carried forward under spend.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
It's more frustration than anything Dr. How we can trot games like this out, yet play like we did against Richmond, Hawthorn & St Kilda, all so rans. Even what we dished up against Gold Coast 1st half.
Marty
Roar Rookie
I agree, I thought it was great, and an interesting insight into some of his concerns about the playing group. In the majority of cases I also agree that any finals are good to be playing in. The problem isn’t with the youngsters who would benefit from that experience, it’s with the senior players who aren’t up to it. Could you imagine going into a final with Wilson running around in the back line? You’d be better off playing with 17. My issue is that by somehow making the finals it may guarantee those guys a spot in the team moving forward for longer than it otherwise would. Let’s not forget that when it comes to giving games to average footballers Freo has a long a celebrated history.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Have the Blues any salary space Macca? Sam Mclure said the story of Cripps taking a pay cut was a furphy and you’ve had to fork out for big Harry now plus the high priced recruits, Martin, Williams, Saad, McGovern, etc…surely you wouldn’t have much left for any more big names?
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
All the Bucks bashers attributed our GF run in 2018 to Longmuir. Seems he has his own issues to worry about now.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Where has all this Cockiness come from, Dingo? I love it!
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
With no crowds it is hard to keep up. Could be a humdinger of a finals series.
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
I thought the coaches response was honest and refreshing. A good belting or two at the end of the season is not surprising. If you get a final, always great experience for the next year.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
It was against Meek that Oscar had his edge. Darcy still won the numbers but didn't dominate. Margetts did his usual with Darcy. Took a mark at the 40 unpaid. Got a push 15 metres out and Margetts called advantage to a spill into the pocket. Darcy had another mark just outside 50, Brissy ran straight through the mark...No 50m. Mundy, more than any, is missing Fyfe's grunt work. Fyfe extracts so many pack balls and his synergy with Mundy running through was outstanding. Fyfey also clears paths. We see the impact in the lower efficiency of Mundy's disposal.
Marty
Roar Rookie
I agree to a point. My concern is that somehow scrapping into finals for the first time in a while will be used to cover over some very significant cracks that mean we are simply uncompetitive against quality teams. As the coach noted, one of the issues this week was players getting in front of themselves after a good win last week. Imagine what it would be like if we made finals?! TBH I would be happier if we missed finals but were able to produce a performance like Essendon did on Saturday every so often. Being able to come out on top of a highly skilled game of footy against top quality opposition.