Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir backs in Jye Amiss to rediscover top form against Melbourne

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has thrown his support behind key forward Jye Amiss, saying he’s confident the forward is “not far off” rediscovering form.

Amiss, who kicked 105 goals across the past three seasons, kicked one from four possessions and one mark in the Dockers’ opening round loss to the Cats at GMHBA Stadium.

It marked the fourth time in the spearhead’s past five games that he’s mustered five disposals or fewer, dating back to the closing weeks of last season.

Fremantle looks likely to persist with their three-pronged tall attack of Josh Treacy, Patrick Voss and Amiss when they tackle Melbourne on Saturday at Optus Stadium.

“I spoke to him during the week, but he created a lot of opportunities,” Longmuir said.

“Clearly we need to maximise some of those opportunities. He’s not far off in that sense.

“We need to help him as a coaching group to mix up his roles a little bit more and challenge his opponent in different ways … whether that’s defensively or getting higher up the ground.

“It’s a mix of things but we need to give him the flexibility to be able to try a few of those things.”

Longmuir said the Dockers were working on a plan to counter Kysaiah Pickett, who can be equally damaging between midfield and attack.

He kicked 1.1 and also attended 24 centre bounces in last week’s 13-point win over St Kilda.

The Dockers might consider a double tag when the Demons’ livewire attends centre ball ups and shifts back inside 50.

“We’re working through that,” Longmuir said.

“The tricky part is if you have two players looking after him it’s getting that transition piece right post centre bounce or post stoppage and then you need the athletic traits to be able to keep up with him and stop him.

“We feel like we have some good options. Clearly last time we played he had an impact, but I don’t think we helped the players who played on him up the ground, we let the ball move too quick.

“he is pretty dangerous on anyone if you can do that.”

Pickett kicked five goals from 24 disposals the last time the teams met, in round six of last season, as he shifted between attack and the midfield.

Corey Wagner has been a successful go to player transitioning between the middle of the ground and attack, while Brandon Walker has been up-skilled as a lockdown backman, taking on Patrick Dangefield in round one.

The Demons were one of nine teams - including Fremantle - to kick more than 100 points last week, in a debut win for new coach Steven King. Key forward Jacob van Rooyen kicked six goals and Collingwood recruit Brodie Mihocek booted three.

“They’ve changed their team up quite a bit. New faces, bit of youth. The backline looks different to what we’ve faced in the past as well,” Longmuir said.

“You expect that with a new coach.

“They obviously got off to a really good start across all three lines on the weekend, so we are under no illusions that we have got our work cut out this week.”

The Dockers’ other big challenge is curbing on-ball colossus Max Gawn as they weigh up the right options Luke Jackson with Sean Darcy, who is still building fitness, or Mason Cox, who had a good record against the Demon in his former life as a Collingwood player.

Darcy has been named in the ruck, but did not train with the main group on Thursday. Cox has again been named as an emerbency.

“He’s obviously a big challenge for any team. We’ve got to make sure we cover him off, but challenge him in the right ways. His game last week was outstanding,” Longmuir said.

“He’s like a fine wine, getting better with age, the big fella. We’ve got our challenges against him, but we also want to be proactive. So we have got to make sure we find that balance.”

The Dockers coach said he felt the team had enough midfield depth to cover the loss of Hayden Young, who will miss with a hamstring strain.

“Time will tell but it does feel like we’ve had a lot of players going through there, so we can pick up the slack pretty easily,” he said.

“We feel like some players are ready to have more responsibility in there as well. So we feel like we can cover him.”