‘I always wanted to coach here deep down’: Longmuir

Justin Longmuir has reflected on his desire to always coach Fremantle ahead of his 100th game as senior coach on Saturday against the Tigers.

“I always wanted to be a senior coach, but always wanted to coach here as well deep down,” Longmuir said at his Wednesday morning media conference.

“It’s a Club that I’m really grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been presented and what they’ve given to me in my journey and my family.

“I’ll be forever indebted to try and repay that.”

Longmuir played 139 games for Fremantle between 1999 to 2007 and became senior coach of the Club in 2020.

Since taking the reigns as senior coach, Longmuir holds a 50-2-47 record and on Saturday will become just the third ever coach in Fremantle’s history to coach 100 games as senior coach.

“It’s not really something I set myself out to do, not even to play AFL,” Longmuir said.

“I’m really grateful to the Football Club for giving me the opportunity firstly as a player and now as a coach… I work every day to try and give something back.”

When asked about reflecting on his journey as senior coach, Longmuir was quick to dismiss that the milestone would be any form of distraction ahead of the Club’s clash with the Tigers at Optus Stadium.

“You’re always looking forward as a coach trying to work out what the future holds and what next week and the longer term looks like,” Longmuir said.

“You have a focus of how we are going to shape things to be able to have sustained success as a footy club.

“I’m not really one to get nostalgic and look in the rear-view mirror.

“I’ve had some good conversations with players this morning and they seemed really invested in the opposition preview.

“We are pretty clear on what Richmond can bring to games.

“They probably haven’t got the consistency or the cattle as consistent as they would’ve liked this year, but they have some real strengths in their game that we need to be aware of and we will be switched on.”