New Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir a quiet ‘country kid’ ready for the big time

He’s Fremantle’s new senior coach, but what else do we know about Justin Longmuir? He’s naturally shy, but the highly rated former Magpies assistant known as ‘J-Lo’ knows what he wants.

Justin Longmuir, coach of the Fremantle Dockers.

Justin Longmuir is the quiet achiever with the ultimate drive.

Fremantle’s new senior coach isn’t the booming-voice coach or even necessarily a desk-thumper, but his former Dockers teammate Leigh Brown said there is an air of justified belief.

The man they call “J-Lo” was today appointed as the Dockers’ coach for three years — replacing the sacked Ross Lyon — and said such an appointment had always been a personal goal.

Brown said the “real country boy” — who has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach to Nathan Buckley at Collingwood — had all of the attributes he would need at the top level.

“He’s quiet but has got a natural confidence about him, or a confidence about what he can do with the knowledge that he’s got,” Brown told the Herald Sun.

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Justin Longmuir has been appointed Fremantle coach after the sacking of Ross Lyon.

“The boys at Collingwood speak really highly of him. Particularly, he’s gone in and set up their defensive structure and system.

“Everyone that works closely with him always speaks really highly of him.

“He’s a real country boy in terms of he’s shy and reserved, but can come out of his shell when he’s really confident about something. Footy’s one those things that he’s really confident about.”

Well done Longy, quality person who’ll have a great impact over west. We know he played at freo because we’ve seen that match winning goal 20x in 2 years. All the best J-Lo @justinlongmuir

— Scott Pendlebury (@SP_10) September 30, 2019

Longmuir, 38, said he was excited to return to the club where he played 139 games before he was struck down by a degenerative knee injury.

“I want this football club to be great for a long period of time,” he said.

“I’m in it to win premierships.

“They put a lot of faith in a skinny kid from the country – I personally don’t feel like I’ve fulfilled that faith they’ve showed.”

Brown — who played alongside Longmuir for three seasons — said he considered Longmuir to be a “relationship-based” coach who would be driven by being cut down by injury at the age of 26.

“We’d know so more about him if his career wasn’t cut short by injury,” he said.

Justin Longmuir has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Collingwood.

“He was a very, very good player. He was a fantastic teammate.

“He had the ability to play key forward or in the ruck. He always impacted games and it was unfortunate for him that he had the injuries along the way.

“No one ever really saw him in full flight, I don’t think, and from a footy point of view, we lost out but now we get to see the Justin Longmuir come through in a coaching capacity.”

Brown said from the outside — having only heard about Longmuir the coach from current Collingwood players — the Dockers’ new leading man was capable of shaking things up.

“The way he’s gotten to know the boys and spend time with them, by all reports, from what they say he’s outstanding,” Brown said.

Justin Longmuir in his playing days.

The new Dockers coach with daughter Ava.

“That’s the type of teammate that he was as well. His knowledge of the game and how he can transfer that information from him and the other coaches to the players is obviously very good.

“From an outsider’s point of view, we’ve seen a big change in the Collingwood system and by all reports, he’s been a big part of that.”

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Buckley said last month that he considered Longmuir an “exceptional” coach.

“He’s been so impressive. He’s aspired to senior coaching through his journey and he’s continued to skill himself up,” he said.

“I think his relationship building with the players has been first class and to organise the defensive unit with quite a deep group of players who we’ve had to rotate through there.

“I’ve got no doubt that he could do the job.”

JUSTIN LONGMUIR

Games played: 139 (166 goals) 1999-2007

West Coast assistant coach: 2011-17

Collingwood assistant coach: 2018-19

Originally published as New Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir a quiet ‘country kid’ ready for the big time