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It was the Dockers 12th win of the season from 12 appearances at Optus Stadium, with an average winning margin of 38 points per game, including an \u2018away\u2019 victory against West Coast.<\/p>\n
Pearce played out Friday night\u2019s clash after a knock to his heavily-strapped left knee in the third quarter but appeared hampered thereafter.<\/p>\n
Freo coach Justin Longmuir said post-match he expected the 31-year old defender to be good to go for the club\u2019s final home and away match against Carlton.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just looks like he got a knock on it,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you get a stinger to the front of the kneecap and it hurts for a little bit and he was able to run it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of the game he was fine and he\u2019s fine in the changerooms, which is a relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on an eight day break, right? If he\u2019s right to go, he\u2019ll play.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had a week off last week \u2013 we don\u2019t really want to go week off, week on and another two weeks off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s right, which looks like he will be, he\u2019ll play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crows fall to Dockers in great contest | 11:00<\/p>\n
However, there\u2019s concerns for Reid after he copped a blow to the testicles against Melbourne last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be touch and go for next week,\u201d Longmuir said of the second-year star.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had some specialist advice. We\u2019ll see how he goes this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be long-term but if it costs him another week, so be it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s played a lot of footy for us and I don\u2019t think another week will hurt him. He\u2019s OK, it\u2019s pretty much a corky.<\/p>\n
\u201cShows how tough he is \u2013 everyone talks about his skill but to play through that last week was a really tough effort. Played with it three quarters, pushed through it and had an impact for us in the second half \u2013 he\u2019s a tough little bugger.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he needs another week, he\u2019ll give it to him. But we\u2019d love him back as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Longmuir spoke after his side’s win over Adelaide.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Longmuir believes the Dockers\u2019 unbeaten home record should fuel their belief heading into finals but warned they cannot rely on home-ground advantage to deliver their first premiership.<\/p>\n
Fremantle\u2019s win over Adelaide further strengthens their position at the top end of the AFL ladder, claiming just their second minor premiership since joining the AFL in 1995.<\/p>\n
Longmuir said the prospect of playing finals at home could provide Fremantle with an important boost, particularly with the club\u2019s supporters creating a powerful atmosphere at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it should fuel our belief, and our crowd gets behind us, but we\u2019ve got to give them something to get behind,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think the way we played tonight, we gave them something to get behind, and they got behind us, and it adds something to our energy, and surely it distracts the opposition a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only Hawthorn (nine points), Carlton (14) and Hawthorn (15) got closer to the Dockers in Perth this season than the Crows did on Friday night.<\/p>\n
But Longmuir was adamant the Dockers could not afford to become complacent about their home record.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe home-field advantage is not going to get it done for us, and we can\u2019t go into the finals expecting that it\u2019s going to get it done for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make it happen, so it won\u2019t be talked about internally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win over Adelaide came as an important response to Fremantle\u2019s disappointing loss to Melbourne last week, with Longmuir particularly pleased with how his players returned to the fundamentals that drove their successful season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve set our season up. That\u2019s the way I look at it. You know, it\u2019s a good achievement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally proud of the players, of how they bounced back after last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we set our season up. We\u2019ve put ourselves in a good position. So that\u2019s probably how we\u2019ll look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longmuir said Fremantle\u2019s recent inconsistency had centred on physicality, work rate and their ability to play together, but those elements returned against the Crows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to get back to the things that have got us into this position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur physicality has been inconsistent, our non-negotiable work rate\u2019s been a little bit inconsistent. Playing together has been a little bit inconsistent. So we got back to doing that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longmuir also viewed the win as valuable preparation for September, with Adelaide having won nine of its previous 12 games before Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t allow uncontested marks. They defend one-on-one and force you to a contest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that element of it was finals-like, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dockers will face another strong test against Carlton next week, with the Blues having lost just twice in their past 12 matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would rather that prep going into finals, and I think it will hold us in good stead,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dockers are optimistic that skipper Alex Pearce\u2019s knee injury scare is nothing major, though young gun Murphy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-855566","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\/855566","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=855566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}