justin longmuir says Fremantle’s hot start is less about a single goalsneak and more about a forward line built on selfless role work — a dynamic that has powered recent wins and shapes selection ahead of trips to Adelaide and the Gather Round fixture.
What happens when Justin Longmuir rewards selfless acts?
Longmuir has made internal rewards for process and role a clear priority. “We try and reward the process, ” he said, adding that the club is recognising the small, unglamorous actions that support team success. That stance helps explain why a dominant scorer can be framed publicly as “just the front man” for collective forward work.
- Josh Treacy: eight goals across his past two games and 10 for the season; the 23-year-old ranks No. 1 among forwards with 10 marks a game and is in his sixth season.
- Jye Amiss and Pat Voss: combined five goals in three games and shared 3. 6 against Richmond; Amiss returned 2. 3 after earlier returns of 1. 1 and four marks across his first two games; Voss had 11 score involvements in the Richmond match.
- Shai Bolton: shifted into a more prominent onball role, producing an equal career-high 33 disposals in a recent match and strong two-game form mixing midfield and forward minutes while another key player is sidelined.
- Preparation rhythm: the squad will travel to Adelaide for a Friday night match against the Crows, return to Perth the next morning because of an airport curfew, then prepare for a Gather Round slot seven days later against Collingwood.
What if Treacy keeps kicking — who benefits and who faces pressure?
Treacy’s recent output — including a four-goal, 16-disposal outing that featured an equal career-high 12 marks against the Tigers — reinforces Longmuir’s point that targets who convert will naturally draw attention. But Longmuir emphasises that those moments are created by patterning and selflessness: Treacy “is catching everything that comes his way, ” and also “been really selfless with some of his patterns to open up space for others. “
For coach justin longmuir the evidence of a functioning forward line is not only scoreboard returns but also seconds that lead to goals: Amiss handed off a shot to Matthew Johnson in one sequence and Voss regularly squared the ball inside 50 to create opportunities. Those plays are being tracked and rewarded internally. The practical implication is twofold: selection and structure will favour players who accept role-defined contributions, and opponents must respect a multi-faceted forward group rather than a single target.
Scenarios to watch across the upcoming South Australian trips are straightforward: if Treacy sustains his marking and conversion, the forward unit’s confidence and structure are reinforced; if opposition tagging or physicality curtails his impact, the team will rely on the selfless patterns that have already produced shared scoring. Longmuir’s public messaging seeks to lock in the former by convincing players that non-statistical work is valued as highly as goals and disposals.
Uncertainty remains in how rotations and match-day conditions across two consecutive South Australian fixtures will affect momentum; travel constraints — notably the return-to-Perth plan driven by an Adelaide airport curfew — add a practical wrinkle to game-to-game preparation. Still, the current mix of conversion, marking dominance and deliberate off-ball work gives the side a clear blueprint for maintaining form into the Gather Round test.
In short, the present inflection is not simply that a forward is scoring freely, but that a philosophy of role discipline and internal reward has produced a functioning attack. That framework is what justin longmuir wants readers and opponents to understand as the team heads into its next fixtures.
