Justin Longmuir proud that Fremantle Dockers have equalled club record 17 wins in a season after derby victory

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has hailed his team’s brilliant year after their 70-point victory over West Coast saw them equal the club record for the most wins in a season.

The Dockers beat West Coast 16.16 (112) to 6.6 (42) to register their 17th win of the season and equal the club record they set in 2015. Fremantle finished that season on top of the ladder with a 17-5 record. They are currently 17-2 and still have four games remaining to break that record and claim 18 wins.

Longmuir said it was a performance that deserved a lot of credit.

“I’m proud of the season,” he said.

“It does mean a bit. It’s equalled the most amount of games we’ve one in a season. It’s pretty special, isn’t it? We’ve still got a lot of improvement left in us. I thought there’s some signs there today that show that we’ve got we’ve got some improvement left in us in the way teams are throwing different things at us that we need to adjust to.

“So the next four to five weeks give us a good opportunity to work on some of those things, I think we’re still hungry as individuals and still hungry as a team to improve. I’m happy with where we’re at. I’m more excited about what’s ahead.”

Fremantle can now focus on locking in top spot as they prepare for the finals. They will play at home against the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium next week and Longmuir is confident Brennan Cox (knee) and Hayden Young (ill) will be available.

On a night where Murphy Reid won the Glendinning-Allan Medal, he said the Dockers controlled the derby despite being only eight points up at half-time.

“I thought it was a dominant performance from start to finish,” he said.

“I thought a bit of inaccuracy cost us. We had eight more scoring shots to half time. We’d also blown a fair few other opportunities.

“I don’t think we defended our front half as well as we usually do in the first half, which gave them some looks back the other way with their ball movement. But once we started defending our front half, I thought it was a pretty dominant performance.

“Maybe the scoreboard didn’t even reflect that. I thought the amount of scoring shots we had, the amount of time in forward half and I thought boys valued the right things and got the job done.”