Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has confirmed Fremantle will have four big ins when they face Hawthorn in the qualifying final on Thursday night.
Forwards Jye Amiss and Sam Switkowski were rested from the final home-and-away game of the season alongside defender Heath Chapman, while second-year midfield star Murphy Reid missed with injury.
But with a place in a home preliminary final on the line, Longmuir confirmed all four would be in the team, barring any training mishaps.
“Yeah, at this stage they will all come in, they need to get through main training, but they’ve all trained really strongly since the Carlton game and done every minute of every session,” he told 7NEWS.
“So, they look well placed to return.”
Reid had been working through a severe low blow to the testicles sustained during round 22 at the MCG against Melbourne, the former Rising Star given a few extra weeks to recover ahead of a big September campaign.
“He’s right to go,” Longmuir said.
“He’s got the clearance from specialists and doctors and all those concerned, so he will come back into the side.”
Longmuir also had a strong update on defender Brennan Cox, who injured a calf against the Blues, saying elsewhere there was a strong chance he could return in time for a potential preliminary final.
The Dockers were on the brink of recording a record number of victories across the final month of the regular season, but dismayed a few fans with losses to the Dees and Carlton.
However, Longmuir wasn’t overly concerned about the results, suggesting they were as much his fault as the players’, as they worked through how best to prepare for the finals series.
“I think our contest probably dropped away a little bit, and that’s probably the one thing that will drop away when players are probably in self-preservation mode,” he said.
“And you don’t have to be off by far in modern-day football to get taught a lesson in the contest, so we’ve gone to work on that.
“At the end of the day, a little bit of the two losses was on us as well. We tried to manage a few players through that time, and it probably cost us a couple of results, to be honest.
“But in between them was the Adelaide performance, and I thought we played really well in that game, and we will lean in on that performance.”
The Dockers will also lean on their most recent meeting against Hawthorn and allowing veteran forward Jack Gunston to rip them apart in the first half.
Gunston kicked six goals for the match before the Dockers ran over the top in the final term, with the Hawks’ goalkicker having kicked 11 majors at Optus Stadium in 2026 after adding five against West Coast in Round 24.
Longmuir said his side had learnt its lessons.
“Oscar or Pearcy will get that job, but we need to make sure we support them up the ground with our team defence,” he said.
“I thought last time, in the first half in particular, we hung our deep backs out to dry, and we definitely don’t want to do that again.”
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said he wouldn’t be making many alterations with the team, happy with how his side had managed the run into finals.
“There won’t be too many changes,” he told AFL360.
“I know they’ve probably had a bit more flexibility than the Dockers. We managed players in-game rather than resting players.
“We did a lot of it in-game. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but because we’d had an early bye, we didn’t think percentage would matter, so at halftime, we’d manage a player or two, so then they’d be able to do a bit more training during the week.
“I think that’ll pay us back.”
