Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir wary of much more than North Melbourne big man Tristan Xerri

West Australian

2 days ago

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir says dominant ruckman Tristan Xerri is not the only midfield force the Dockers need to be wary of heading into Saturday night's away game against North Melbourne at Optus Stadium.
Xerri is in white-hot form, ranked fifth for hit-outs with 440 this season, but it's his efforts at ground level that will clearly challenge the Dockers.
The Roos ruck is ranked second in the competition for clearances, with 94, behind only Dockers midfielder Caleb Serong (103), 10 of them coming in last Sunday's narrow win over West Coast in Bunbury.
He is poised to take on Fremantle's much-talked about combination of Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy for the first time.
'Clearly, he is in great form. He'd have to be All-Australian ruck at the moment or close to,' Longmuir said.
'That's going to be important. But they've got a lot of mids who go through there and get their hands on it and put good pressure on.
'The last four (games) they've been number one pre-clearance, number one pressure. So they make it a good, honest battle in there, and have been getting it going their way more often than not.'
Xerri and Jackson are both cat like at ground level, but Roos prime movers Tom Powell, Colby McKercher, Luke Parker, Luke Davies-Uniacke, Dylan Stephens and Jy Simpkin combined for 25 clearances against the Eagles.
The Dockers coach said they would look at structure and strategy, rather than major midfield change, backing in the proven combination of Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong, Shai Bolton and Jackson, who are all clearance kings.
'Just understanding what they're going to bring and rolling up our sleeves and getting to work just on that,' he said.
Veteran Nat Fyfe returned from injury for his first AFL game this season before the bye, having a major impact as the sub in the last quarter.
Longmuir said Fyfe's impact was also big off the field and they were weighing up whether to again start the dual Brownlow medallist as the sub or on limited minutes in the starting 22.
'It is important when games get tough and tight to have wise calm heads, especially as a sub against Gold Coast,' Longmuir said.
'Every time someone comes to the bench, they look at the back of the bench and they've got someone who's really measured and calm talking to them and helping them problem solve and work through those situations.'
The Dockers will stick with their forward line structure of three talls - Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Patrick Voss - which could stretch a North Melbourne defence missing the in-form key back Charlie Comben, who is out for two to three weeks with a shoulder injury suffered against the Eagles.
'I'm sure they've got some coverage to come in and replace but I think we can utilise that,' Longmuir said.
'The beauty about our talls is, they can provide good aerial targets and threaten aerially, but I feel like they're good at ground level as well, Vossy, Jye and JT.
'They join in at ground level and put pressure on and you don't even realise that we're playing three talls at times down there.
'So everything is an advantage there, but we also think we don't lose anything by playing those three talls.'
The Dockers are coming off a hot run of form, with confidence inspiring road wins over GWS and Gold Coast, with a comfortable home victory against Port Adelaide wedged in between.
But they are coming off the bye and have lost in the last three seasons off their mid-season break.
Longmuir said they had made minor tweaks to their preparation.
'Slightly different,' he said. 'We've been changing up our schedule a bit, so it hasn't been specifically to the bye, but it's probably been specific to long breaks, the way we come out of the weekend in particular we've changed up, and probably most importantly, we've tried not to make it a narrative,' he said.
'We're a different team. We understand that the things that we've been doing prior to the bye have been working.
'So it's probably been more getting back to that process, rather than getting caught up in we need to win off the bye or that previous byes haven't worked for us. A few tinkers to the schedule, but it's mainly been getting players back to the process. '
North Melbourne will be playing its second successive 'home game' in WA, having edged the Eagles in Bunbury last Sunday in front of 12,700 fans with ticket sales for Saturday's game at Optus Stadium tracking on 30,000.
The Dockers coach said it was 'critical' Freo fans turned up to the game, even though it was not included in their membership package.
'It's going to be unique. Clearly, it's an away game at Optus and it's not against West Coast, which is something new,' he said.
'It's something new for our players and we are desperate for our fans to get there.
'We understand it's not part of their membership, but we'd love them to fork out a few bucks and come and support us.
'We want to make our home ground a fortress and we need the purple army there to support us. The weather looks like it's clearing up, which may have held a few people back early in the week.
'I'm not 100 per cent on the financials, I don't get involved in that, but it was a bit like Gather Round, in some sense, to the Adelaide teams, where they get to stay at home for an extra week.
'It's an important part of our season, but it's also important part of equality of the fixture, in some sense. So yeah, we want, we want as many to get there as possible.'