AFL world goes scorched earth on Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir
Justin Longmuir and the Fremantle footy club is copping it from all sides after the Dockers’ dismal Friday night loss to St Kilda.
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AFL critics have Justin Longmuir firmly in their sights after his Fremantle Dockers’ dismal performance against St Kilda on Friday night.
Despite losing their last four matches of 2024 to blow a finals chance, the Dockers came into this season with many talking up their September prospects and some even leaning towards a possible top four finish.
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Starting 2025 with defeats to Geelong and Sydney, Fremantle steadied the ship with consecutive wins over West Coast, the Bulldogs and Richmond.
But the Dockers’ last two trips to Melbourne – a loss to the previously winless Demons and a horror 61-point defeat to the Saints – fell either side of a home win over Adelaide.
Those two performances in Melbourne have put the club firmly in the spotlight.
Speaking after the one-sided beat down against the Saints, when they only kicked their second goal 10 minutes into the third quarter, Longmuir didn’t talk like a coach in full control.
“I think everyone at the football club at the moment should be questioning themselves,” he said.
“The first thing I look at after a performance like that, and any good leader should, is ‘what did I get wrong?’
“Like, I’m not sitting here blaming the players. I’ve got to look at my own performance this week and am I contributing to us being an inconsistent team.
“So, of course I’m going to question myself. (I) can’t just sit here and say it’s all on the players.”
The path ahead doesn’t get any easier for Fremantle, with games against Collingwood at home, GWS in Sydney, Port Adelaide at home and the Suns on the Gold Coast in the next month.
Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis was among those questioning Longmuir’s future at Fremantle in a damning discussion on Fox Footy after the game.
“These types of performances can cost coaches their jobs,” Lewis said bluntly.
“That will be the question, is this coach the right coach to lead this coach forward?
“I think tonight displayed to me they need something to change. It’s been a recurring story this Fremantle Football Club and the way they play.
“And that was probably indicated in terms of the way the contract was set up.”
The Dockers have often done things a little differently in their three-decade history and that unfolded with the contract Lewis is referring to.
Coming off contract at the end of 2025, Longmuir agreed to “vary his employment terms” it was announced in February and would “transition to an ongoing employment agreement”.
It was a highly unusual move in an environment when coaches are usually given a fixed-term contract and it raised plenty of eyebrows at the time.
Having joined the competition back in 1995, the Dockers are currently contesting their 31st season and have so far made the finals just eight times.
Their best achievement as a club was a loss to Hawthorn in their only grand final appearance in 2013, while they also reached the preliminary finals in 2006 and 2015.
Garry Lyon didn’t hold back in his assessment of the Dockers, questioning whether the club itself has the right mentality to challenge at the summit of the AFL ladder.
“I don’t think the players genuinely believe that they can exist in a top-four environment, week in and week out,” he began.
“When you live in that environment, it is tough and it is demanding and the standard has to be ruthless, I don’t think that’s a comfortable place for them.
“You have to front up with intensity week in, week out. You can have bad days, but the good sides still find a way.
“They front up once (against Adelaide), they go and get their arse kicked tonight like they did, they were pathetic against Melbourne at the MCG.
“They’ve been in existence for a long time. I’m talking about a football club mentality, not even just tonight.
“Over the journey, I’m not sure they believe that they are capable, and they’ve played in one grand final in 30 years.
“Maybe tonight will be the night when they go back and sit down and really eyeball it.”
Longmuir could only add after the game that he had expected a better performance against a St Kilda side that had lost three straight matches coming into Friday night.
“(We’re) disappointed, it was not the performance we wanted to put out there, clearly,” Longmuir said.
“We thought we had a good week, we thought we were really clear on what we needed to do, and we just didn’t get any of those ‘focuses’ that we went into the game with, done.
“They played with a higher intensity, which we didn’t deal with. We were really disappointing.”
Unless he can inspire some intensity from his troops, Longmuir’s “ongoing employment agreement” may well come to a shuddering halt.
Originally published as AFL world goes scorched earth on Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir
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