{"id":631689,"date":"2026-04-26T08:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631689\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:34:17","slug":"fremantles-spread-of-match-winning-talent-making-them-a-dangerous-proposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631689\/","title":{"rendered":"Fremantle\u2019s spread of match-winning talent making them a dangerous proposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Fremantle\u2019s depth of talent and the number of players who are capable of being match winners is one of the biggest changes to the club this season, according to coach Justin Longmuir.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The Dockers won their sixth game in a row on Saturday night when the beat Carlton 16.7 (103) to 13.11 (89) at Optus Stadium. Shai Bolton won the Arthur Leggett Medal for his best on ground display that saw him collect 33 possessions and kick two goals. Luke Jackson was also brilliant, finishing runner-up in that award after a dominant display in the ruck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Their efforts followed Jordan Clark winning the Glendinning-Allan Medal last week against West Coast ahead of key forward Jye Amiss and youngster Murphy Reid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">With Hayden Young winning the Glendinning-Allan Medal last year, the Dockers have had a wide variety of players who have stepped up in key games. There was a time when Fremantle relied upon big games from Caleb Serong and Andrew Brayshaw to be successful, but that is no longer the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThat\u2019s where you want to get to as a footy club,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cDifferent players get a lick of the ice cream in different weeks. When we talk about our forwards and who kicks the goals, we want to share the load but sometimes the ball bounces to one person a little bit more than the others. Bolts won the medal but I still think we had a pretty even performance across the group. we had a lot of good players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI think we\u2019re building good flexibility. The players are becoming really selfless and they want to share the load as well which is the most important thing. Coaches can want it all they want but if the players don\u2019t want it, it doesn\u2019t come to fruition. The players, led by our leaders, have become really selfless. They want to share the load.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Jackson\u2019s dominance was crucial to the win as he again showed how tough he is to match both in the air and on the ground. Longmuir said Jackson is reaping the rewards from the hard work he put in over summer and everyone at Fremantle understands they have a player who is capable of things that few players can match.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2d71bae04e652a443cf6358b08dd8286b65302d4-16x9-x0y5w4000h2250.jpg\" alt=\"Luke Jackson celebrates.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" height=\"2250\" width=\"4000\"\/>Camera IconLuke Jackson celebrates. Credit: Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe\u2019s unique. He\u2019s a good aerial player and a good tap ruckman, but he\u2019s just as good at ground level. Once it hits the deck, he becomes another midfielder, hence why at times we like to put him through the midfield and use him as a midfielder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI thought he did a great job, and he\u2019s pretty electric when he gets up and about like that. He\u2019s become fitter with his running which was a huge step up from last year, and he\u2019s become a lot stronger as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ix6vwn-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe\u2019s really put the time into the gym, and he\u2019s able to stand there and wrestle with the rucks as well now and not just rely on his jump. So he\u2019s evolved all aspects of his game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fremantle\u2019s depth of talent and the number of players who are capable of being match winners is one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,10124,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-631689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-fremantle-dockers","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}