FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir concedes his team was “smoked” in the contest by an inspired West Coast on Saturday night, with concerns around the team’s scoring also hitting home after a shock Derby upset.
The Dockers were stripped of their contest and groundball strengths by a determined Eagles team, which put its foot down in a clinical third quarter to win the hardball battle 38-18 while piling on five unanswered goals to build a 64-point lead.
EAGLES v DOCKERS Full match coverage and stats
Longmuir said the Eagles’ contest dominance was crucial, leaving his team with a lack of supply, poor front-half connection and a fourth consecutive score this season below 70.
“From the 20-minute mark in the first quarter for about two-and-a-half quarters, we got smoked in the contest,” Longmuir said after the match.
“We knew what we were getting. Their form over the last two weeks has been really good and they did to us what they did to Richmond. We prepared for that, but we weren’t good enough to handle it.
“We’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to be able to respond quicker, and I thought once they got on top on the scoreboard, we started getting reactive … so a lot went wrong.”
