Tight finishes a concern for Dockers after Bombers loss

[Pelican Press 0]

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Tight finishes a concern for Dockers after ******** loss

Fremantle will once again need to look at how they see out close games after they lost to Essendon to ***** their chance to consolidate a top-four spot.

The Dockers led by 25 points early in the final term at the MCG on Sunday but conceded five consecutive goals on their way to losing by a point – slipping to sixth on the ladder as a result.

Fremantle also lost to Hawthorn late recently after conceding a run of goals, while only Logan McDonald’s stray after-the-siren kick saved them against fast-finishing Sydney.

When asked if it was a concern, coach Justin Longmuir said: “Yeah it is.”

“It’s something we’ve been working on – we’ve been doing a lot of scenario play and trying to tidy that up,” he said.

“But it comes back to the contests. Like, if you can’t get your contest method right and you allow the opposition out the front, it’s really hard to defend.

“So we’ll go to school on this one again and take the lessons and hopefully be better in that situation next time.”

Longmuir said Fremantle had “possibly” gone into their shells too early against the ********.

“I was probably more worried about our ability to get the hands on the ball,” he said.

“It felt like we couldn’t get possession of the ball there for a while.”

The Dockers now sit sixth and face a torrid home run against Geelong (Optus Stadium), GWS (Engie Stadium) and Port Adelaide (Optus Stadium).

“We’ve been talking about the scenarios for a while now and I think our players have largely been handling that pretty well,” he said.

“Melbourne was do or ****, last week was a derby, in large periods we handled it well today.

“It’s the pointy end of the season, probably the games mean a little bit more and what we’ll try and do is just normalise it and try and focus on our footy rather than the scoreboard.

“So it’s gonna be important this week – we’ve got a six-day break against another team near the top of the ladder.

“So, they’re all important but we can’t focus on the outcomes. We’ve got to make sure we focus on our process and I think largely our players have been pretty good at that.”

Longmuir admitted the Dockers could have used the experience of injured captain Alex Pearce and veteran Michael Walters, plus the suspended Nat Fyfe.

He took heart from how his tall forwards played together, with Jye Amiss (four goals), Josh Treacy (three), Sam Sturt (two) and Luke Jackson (two) all *******.

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