to secure a 37-point win, a top-two finish, and a club-record 18th win of the season.<\/a><\/p>\nLongmuir said the performance highlighted the maturity his side had developed over the past 18 months, as their victory essentially sealed their first minor premiership since 2015. <\/p>\n
Longmuirduring the Round 21 AFL match between the Fremantle Dockers and Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium, on July 31, 2026, in Perth, Australia.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the growth in our maturity across the last 18 months is that we haven\u2019t panicked when we\u2019ve been in those situations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just kept our head, kept playing, kept problem solving and kept working our way through the situations the opposition have thrown at us, and usually we\u2019ve come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite regularly topping 100 points in recent weeks, Longmuir said the Dockers embraced the challenge of winning an ugly, low-scoring contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to score and they kept the scoreboard pretty even until halfway through the third quarter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was proud of the way the players worked their way through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Fremantle has now guaranteed itself a top-two finish, Longmuir insisted there was no sense of complacency.<\/p>\n
Young to make Freo return against Dogs | 00:54<\/p>\n
In the lead up to the finals, he has consistently stated he didn\u2019t think they were in a position to manage players. After Friday\u2019s win, he said they were clearly still searching for their best football ahead of the finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve watched our games closely over the last month, we haven\u2019t played 120 minutes of footy, which is what it\u2019s going to take in the finals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still on that journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe approach the season like we\u2019re still in the finals hunt, where we\u2019re still looking for improvement and looking to better our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory also established a new club record with an 18th win for the season, but Longmuir said the milestone was only meaningful because it had strengthened Fremantle\u2019s premiership credentials.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to stop and enjoy the journey and smell the roses along the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve set a new benchmark for our club, but we understand there\u2019s bigger fish to fry as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longmuir said the record had helped secure the all-important top-two finish that gives interstate clubs their best chance of winning a premiership.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the contest, he praised his players for refusing to become frustrated by the Bulldogs\u2019 defensive set up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had field position on our terms for the majority of the night and we just persisted really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wall eventually broke in that last quarter. It was a really mature performance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Longmuir has dismissed suggestions the Western Bulldogs have uncovered a blueprint for stopping Fremantle, wishing any finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-835951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835951","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=835951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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