Former Premiership Eagle Peter Sumich says Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir was simply outcoached, which resulted in its heartbreaking three-point loss against Sydney over the weekend. 

It was a scrappy tussle between the two sides, who were both looking for their first win of the season – ultimately it was the Swans who held on to secure a 9.14 (68) to 9.11 (65) win on the road. 

This now put pressure on Fremantle heading into this weekend’s Western Derby, with both Fremantle and West Coast looking to avoid going 0-3 at the start of the season.

The Dockers were up by two points heading into the final quarter, and were on track to secure their first win of the season, with Jye Amiss booting a goal to put them ahead. 

But defender Riley Bice and an injured Joel Amartey bobbed up to kick two critical goals, locking in Dean Cox’s first win as an AFL senior coach.

Sumich says Fremantle coaching staff going ‘stagnant’ and not making necessary changes to combat Sydney was a contributing factor to its disappointing loss. 

“I thought Dean Cox coached really well at crucial stages, he made changes. McCartin was getting beaten by Treacy, suddenly he put Hamling on him for a while,” he said.

“He made changes, he put Warner forward and then Heeney forward and Warner back into the midfield and he was throwing it around. Even at the death, he had Warner forward and Heeney in the midfield, took Grundy out of the play. Grundy was getting beaten by Jackson, so he made changes on what he’d seen during the game. 

“This is where I think the fans of Fremantle are getting frustrated. The coaching staff aren’t making changes on what’s going on during the game. There’s things that you plan for but there’s things that happen during the game that you’ve got to look at and go ‘What do we do here?’… You’ve got to look at things and then you’ve got to make a change. 

“That’s why I thought Dean Cox outcoached Longmuir and his staff because he made three or four quality changes and some of them in that last quarter which maybe got them over the line. 

“They’re the little things you’ve got to look at and if Fremantle aren’t doing that with Longmuir and his coaching staff, it’s got to rest on them a bit. The players will do what the coach say in the sense of making change during the game, they just do it.

“I didn’t see many changes and that’s why I just think the coaching staff’s a little bit off the mark at the moment in all that stuff. Even putting Erasmus in the midfield and taking out Serong and even Brayshaw and going with O’Meara, Shai Bolton and Erasmus in the last bounce down, why can’t that work? 

“So you’ve got to throw things around, you just can’t go stagnant and that’s what they’ve been doing.” 

Placing a tagger on midfielder Caleb Serong was a key move that brought Sydney back into the game, with James Jordan holding him to 19 disposals and limiting his overall impact. 

Meanwhile, it was veteran Jaeger O’Meara that stood up, with himself 32 disposals, four tackles and five clearances. 

Boom Recruit Shai Bolton also rotated through the middle, finishing on 15 touches, four tackles and six score involvements – a move Sumich says Fremantle needs to persist with. 

“Through the centre bouncedown, he looked good, he looked sharp. He got some nice little handballs out or he got a receive and he looked quick. That was probably the only change that I’ve seen that I like and I reckon they’ve got to persist with that, just gives them a bit of speed around the ball,” he said.

“It’s Serong and Brayshaw, we know what they do and opposition now are starting to realise that Brayshaw’s really not the one to worry about, it’s Serong. Sydney did yesterday, put someone on him, cut him virtually out of the game. 

“Brayshaw really didn’t do much, did he? Their midfield struggling a bit, I think O’Meara is the one who’s actually playing above Serong and Brayshaw at the moment. He’s probably the one that’s can hold his weight for them and then Shai Bolton comes in and looks alright, so hopefully those two can keep going.”

Overall, Sumich says evidence of Fremantle’s faster ball movement is not quite there yet. 

“I don’t know about how it looked live but on TV it was a bit scrappy, but probably what kept Sydney in the game was that type of game,” he said.

“We’re waiting for this so-called addition to their game plan of fast ball movement and run and stun and all this, but we’re not really seeing it at the moment. I think we see snippets, but then they’re falling short on probably scoring. 

“But overall, scrappy game, Sydney kept themselves in it and pinched it at the end. It’s a pretty simple thing and with Sydney with a number of troops out.” 

IMAGE: Sporting News