“That was probably the difference in the game: Longmuir

Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir has said an opportunity was missed in the third quarter to capitalise on a period of dominance.

In a tight, contested game, Fremantle came out firing after half time, but inaccuracy in front of goal cost the travelling team before ruckman Luke Jackson broke the deadlock with a big contested mark at the top of the goal square.

“I thought it was a game that came down to who took their chances better,” Longmuir said in his post-match media conference.

“I think we played the game we wanted to in the third quarter, especially the first two-thirds of it we played it at our end and created opportunities.

“We started the quarter with four points, I think we kicked maybe something like four goals six (points) for the quarter and we just needed to put a bit more of a gap (on the scoreboard) when we had that ascendancy in the game.”

Fremantle were ultimately outscored in the second half 45 to 39 with Longmuir crediting the Hawk’s ability to make the most of their opportunities.

“To their credit, they played a really good brand of footy, they competed hard and I thought they got us on the outside especially at stoppage and like I said they were able to finish their work off,” Longmuir said.

“I thought they were able to win their contests ahead of the ball, their forwards were able to win contests against our backs and we couldn’t do that as much at our end of the ground.

“That was probably the difference in the game.”

In a game that was tight across the board on the stat sheet (contested possessions 118-111, inside 50’s 42-45 and clearances 36- 31) Longmuir highlighted the Club’s ever-continuous search for growth.

“We look at every game, look at what we’ve been doing well and what we need to get better at,” Longmuir said.

“We are always trying to evolve and I’m sure there are some things today that we will want to tighten up and improve on.

“I say it every week we aren’t too concerned with the ladder, we can’t be too concerned with ladder position, we just need to get our footy at a level where we can compete every week.”

Fremantle will now travel home to play the Melbourne Demons in the Club’s Starlight Purple Haze game, presented by South32, next Sunday.