Fremantle’s dominance over their opposition once games enter added time has been quantified by new numbers, but coach Justin Longmuir has warned his side will need to be at their best from the first siren to the last to topple Geelong.

Statistics provided by Champion Data have shown they are the owners of the competition’s second-best point differential once the game clock ticks past 20 minutes, with their figure of plus-146 behind only second-placed Sydney’s plus-182.

Their plus-82 point differential in fourth quarters ranks fourth league-wide.

Longmuir said his side could not afford to have any in-game lulls against the fourth-placed Cats, who he hailed as “clearly one of the best teams in the competition”.

“They’re just consistent across the whole game, and they keep trying to play their footy, no matter the situation,” Longmuir said.

“They challenge you as soon as you drop off. They find a window in that and hit the scoreboard.

“We’re under no illusions that we’re going to have to play really consistently across every quarter. We weren’t able to do that last time and we got exposed.”

In his most recent column for The Sunday Times, Dockers champion Paul Hasleby hailed the current crop’s ability to run out quarters and games as one of the driving forces behind their ascent into premiership favouritism.

“Often players can do extra running for the sake of just running at the end of a session to top up, but (Fremantle’s) program is more about simulating what happens within a game with lateral movement, change of pace and ground recovery a focus,” Hasleby wrote.

“Freo’s fitness is going to be crucial at the back end of the season.”

Fremantle’s only loss of their season came in round one came against Geelong, who had started their campaign a week earlier in Opening Round, prompting Longmuir to publicly express his displeasure at the “competitive advantage”.

Remarkably, their second clash for the season with the Cats will also come on the back of a weekend on the sidelines.

Chris Scott’s side — who have not yet had their mid-season bye — proved far too good for Gold Coast in a 45-point victory on Friday night, the same day the Dockers’ players returned to the club after being granted five days away.

Longmuir said he did not feel the two scenarios were similar at all.

“I feel like we’ve got some good form and runs under our belt. I feel like we’re playing some really good footy at the moment,” he said.

Longmuir said his side were acutely aware of the threats Geelong boasted across all three lines.

“They’re just a really balanced team. All their phases connect really well,” he said.

“They’re really mature and they throw things around and throw different looks at the opposition.

“We understand the scenario — we didn’t quite get it done last time we played them, but we still played some good footy and got the game looking how we wanted to for a fair portion of it. There’s some positives to take out of that.”