Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir starts his new employment agreement on a USA study tour

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir will spend his first day on his new deal as a member of club staff in the United States on a self-funded overseas mission to improve himself and the team. Longmuir’s previous contract expired on Friday and he has now moved to a standard employment agreement which does not have an end date. The coach of six years negotiated that change before the 2025 season. Longmuir was quick to book an overseas study tour with development coach Tendai Mzungu and is visiting multiple sporting franchises to learn new ways to lift the Dockers to success. “He’s overseas as we speak,” Fremantle chief executive Simon Garlick told The West Australian. “Another fantastic trait of JL is that he’s always looking to get better. He preaches that with his playing group and he lives that mantra himself too, not only on a day-to-day basis, but by being incredibly open to ideas and the way in which he and his coaching staff might improve. “He’s gone to the US again, off his own bat, funds it himself, and then looks to get better. He’s taken Tendai Mzungu with him on this trip. He had some players with him last year, so that’s just a staple of the way JL goes about and tries to improve both his personal performance, but that of the team as well. “Justin continued to develop as a coach, along with the team, which is really important. His coaching department also grew. “I think we saw that directly come out in the way that we play, the way we responded in challenging circumstances and the way we were able to win games that were really close and tight that we weren’t able to do the year before. “So as a coach who is continuing to develop along with the team, we were really pleased with the progress of both he and the whole football department.” The Dockers were always adamant that changing the contractual nature of Longmuir’s employment would have little impact on the team or the club. Not only was Longmuir outside of Perth as the change became official, Garlick spent this week in Broome at Fremantle’s Kimberley 9s Carnival with players Pat Voss, Bailey Banfield and Michael Frederick as they worked closely with local youngsters. Garlick said Longmuir’s contractual change wouldn’t impact anything around the club. “It’s business as usual,” he said. “It’s a change that Justin was incredibly comfortable with and the club was pleased to make. It’s business as usual. “We go about planning clearly what 2026 looks like from an on-field perspective. But as we’ve always said, our ultimate aim is to build a football program and a playing group that can sustainably contend for premierships on an ongoing basis. “So the show rolls on. There’s no change whatsoever to that.” Fremantle went public with their lofty goals to win a premiership last year in what was the final season of their 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. They have taken a different approach since the end of the season, preferring to focus on improvement instead of targeting specific new goals. Garlick said the club understands it must continue to get better. “We want to continue to improve,” he said. “It’s an incredibly competitive environment that we’re in in AFL footy, and from our perspective, if we were to stay at status quo and perform as we did in 2025 in 2026, then we’re going to go backwards. “We think we’ve got some real scope for growth and that our players are gaining more experience. We were bitterly disappointed to be knocked out in the first week of finals, but it does give, not only our playing group, but our whole program, that finals experience. “To go down by one point against Gold Coast was gut-wrenching, but I think we saw during the year that we can compete with anyone in the competition. So our aim will be to continue to improve and ensure we give ourselves an opportunity to succeed.” The Dockers made only one addition to their squad during the trade period with Melbourne defender Judd McVee joining the club. They also lost plenty of experience with Nat Fyfe, Michael Walters, James Aish and Quinton Narke retiring, along with Will Brodie and Liam Reidy moving to Port Adelaide and Carlton respectively. Garlick was confident McVee, 22, would make a big impression on the team. “We see Judd as being someone who can improve our team and our performance,” he said. “He’s a young player who had a really solid first four years of his career. He’s played 65-odd games. He’s a cool head and a good defender who can use the ball really well. “Whenever you go out and specifically target a player and look to bring them into your club, you do so with an aim for it to improve your list and your output. So I think Judd is going to do that.”