FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir is confident the Dockers can “outlast anyone” in 2025 after a brutal pre-season in the heat that has built the team’s fitness, strength and resilience.
Players have remarked about the intensity of the Dockers’ summer under high performance coach Phil Merriman, who has used surprise running sessions at the end of training and match practice to take the team’s fitness to a new level.
Longmuir, who spoke two years ago about his vision for the Dockers to be one of the League’s fittest teams, was confident the group was now in that bracket and ready to handle unexpected challenges and push through any adversity.
“I think we can mix it with anyone, and I think we can outlast anyone,” Longmuir told AFL.com.au.
“I think we’re fitter, I think we’re stronger and the gym work has gone to another level.
“You can see that in our contest and our ability to hit bodies at training, and there’s been times when I’ve had to remind the players that you’re going up against your teammates because they just seem to be hitting a bit harder than what they were.
“They’ve been able to endure the heat since Christmas and we’ve had multiple days where it’s north of 35C and touching on 40C and they’ve been able to endure through that and get each other through that.
“So as far as footy goes, I’ve seen a really consistent product. We took some steps forward in that last year to be a really consistent team and we want to build on that this year.”
More than just building fitness, however, Longmuir said the physical challenges over the summer had built more connection and resilience among the players.
It’s an edge that the coach hoped his team would be able to draw on when challenged late in games this season after losing crucial matches in 2024 from winning positions.
“When people come together and get through hardship, it builds resilience and we’ve built plenty of that over the pre-season,” the coach said.
“It takes a lot of commitment and it takes, in some sense, a lot of mental toughness.
“That’s not saying that they’re not going to be fatigued halfway through the third quarter against Geelong, because early in the season it’s a different level of intensity and it takes a while to come up and get up to that.”
The Dockers’ four defeats to end 2024 were not simply a fitness issue for Longmuir, with injuries to key players Josh Treacy, Alex Pearce and Sean Darcy, as well as the maturity of the group and their ability to “mix things up” also playing a role.
That lack of flexibility is something the Dockers have addressed this pre-season, with Longmuir now confident more than half of his players are in a position to execute secondary roles at AFL level.
“I’m not clear enough to say it here,” Longmuir said, with Liam Reidy the alternative after leading the ruck against Melbourne in the final pre-season game.
“It’s probably one of the harder discussions we’re going to have leading into round one, because we expect Sean to be back and playing his best footy at some period early in the season.
“I’m really conscious of setting ‘Jacko’ up for success, not just in round one but for the season and making sure he’s really clear on his role, getting continuity on his role and not having to chop and change.
“But there’s also an aspect of what gives the team the best chance of winning in round one, so we’ll weigh that up over the next couple of days.”
