AFL trade, free agency analysis: Fremantle’s big plans after Lachie Schultz, Liam Henry join exodus

Shaun Mannagh couldn’t have done more to shop himself to AFL clubs in the VFL Grand Final. Our analysis reveals the club which needs the Werribee dynamo most.

Fremantle is set to be a key player in coming years of trade and free agency.

Fremantle has three juicy worms already baited on the hook.

The club has been hit hard by player departures in recent years but is ready to turn to the tables on the competition in one year’s time with a trio of first-round picks to go shopping for a new key forward.

In what is already shaping as the one of the biggest stories of the 2024 trade period, Fremantle is eyeing off Western Australian goal kicker Logan McDonald, and could join Sydney Swans in throwing the kitchen sink at Western Bulldogs Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.

Todd Marshall (Port Adelaide), Ben King (Gold Coast), Elliott Himmelberg (Adelaide) and Aaron Cadman (GWS) would also be on the watch list, while Jacob Van Rooyen (Melbourne) remains contracted until 2025.

The Dockers have lost plenty of talent in recent years including Adam Cerra. Picture: James Worsfold/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Cerra was poised to be a key cog in the Dockers’ midfield. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

But before the Dockers can make a million-dollar splash for another prime big man to partner Jye Amiss and Luke Jackson in attack, there is a more pressing short-term need.

And coach Justin Longmuir, who is out of contract next season, will be desperate to sort it in the drafts next month.

When Lachie Schultz moved to Collingwood a fortnight ago, joining Liam Henry, Blake Acres, Griffin Logue and Adam Cerra out the door in recent years, Fremantle lost its most dangerous and consistent small forward.

Shaun Mannagh would be a ready-made forward-midfield option for Fremantle. Picture: Kelly Defina/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

But if there is a ready-made replacement who looks cherry ripe for the Dockers, it might be Werribee pocket rocket Shaun Mannagh.

The 175cm goal kicker dominated the VFL Grand Final racking up six goals and 28 disposals to win the Norm Goss medal in a losing side, after snagging six goals from 26 touches in a big win over Sandringham mid-season.

They are eye-popping hauls from the clean ballwinner, who rotated between the midfield and forward lines to finish fifth in the VFL best and fairest award.

And former Werribee coach Michael Barlow has given Mannagh the ultimate endorsement, saying the powerful half forward would slot straight into an AFL side.

With Schultz and Henry gone at Fremantle, Michael Walters about to turn 33, and a big hole punched in the Dockers’ goal kicking capabilities for next season, Mannagh seems perfect for Longmuir’s side.

Could the Dockers get themselves in the mix for Jamarra Ugle-Hagan? Picture: Michael Klein

WA product Logan McDonald shapes as a key target for the Dockers. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

The only question is how far will he fall in a draft which seems light on for depth?

The Dockers have picks 34, 46 and 60, but could also use one of the three first-round picks in next year’s draft to trade up in November’s draft live on the night.

Fremantle knows 2024 will be another season of consolidation, before it will try to have a genuine crack at a deep finals run the year after with a bolstered forward half.

Longmuir but will hope for a contract extension over summer or at least early in the season to diffuse any pressure which ramps up on his job.

The search for a key forward is an obvious play from Fremantle to help find a co-pilot for Amiss.

Another big body would also allow Jackson to maximise his extraordinary versatility roaming up the ground as mobile marking target, or tall ballwinner around stoppages.

The Dockers need to maximise Luke Jackson’s incredible gifts. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

It is a big season for 193cm Josh Treacy, 21, who will use this season to try and show he can be the second banana in attack.

But if they miss on McDonald and Ugle-Hagan, there is a healthy batch of superstar ballwinners Fremantle could also target to bolster the engine room, including Brisbane free agent Hugh McCluggage, Sydney’s Errol Gulden and Western Bulldogs’ Bailey Smith.

Most clubs will be having a crack at those three out-of-contract stars.

Fremantle has made it clear it is keen to keep Sean Darcy as the No. 1 ruckman despite continued interest from Geelong.

But personnel isn’t the only big question mark for this club after a 10-win season in 2023.

The style also needs to be tweaked. They need more gears, the Dockers.

In 2022, Fremantle had one of the best defences, and best defensive systems in the caper, conceding on average 68 points a game.

But the team went backwards defensively last season conceding 83 points a game.

That’s leaking two-and-a-half more goals per match.

The club’s one wood kept finding the bunker off the tee.

In attack, where the improvement was meant to come last season, Fremantle’s scoring increased by only one point from 79 to 80 per match.

And Schultz, who has booted 63 goals over the past two years, is gone, Nat Fyfe wants to play midfield again, and Walters is near the end.

So Longmuir will attempt to re-establish the top-line defensive game, while being able to add some layers and tricks to its ball movement and scoring power.

So there are considerable challenges ahead in Longmuir’s contract year.

But here is the good news from a list perspective, despite the long list of recent departures.

Amiss, 20, looks like one of the best developing key forwards in the game (and on a similar trajectory to Melbourne’s Van Rooyen) after booting 41 goals in his second season.

Jackson is a unicorn, and could become the top ruckman in the game over the next decade.

And beneath All-Australian hard nuts Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong, there will be a key focus on the emergence of developing midfield prospects Neil Erasmus (pick 10 in 2021) and Matthew Johnson (pick 21), who can help provide more polish and class to help round out the engine room.

Half-back turned midfielder Hayden Young has the weapons to follow Serong to All-Australian honours.

Those four, combined with Jackson, Amiss and Brayshaw are the core of what the club hopes will be Fremantle’s first premiership team.

But they will have to add some pieces.

They have the picks to trade, it’s just a matter of who takes the bait.

Originally published as AFL trade, free agency analysis: Fremantle’s big plans after Lachie Schultz, Liam Henry join exodus