Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir left devastated by one-point elimination final loss to Gold Coast Suns

Devastated Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir says his team’s one-point elimination final loss to Gold Coast hurts even more because it officially ended the Nat Fyfe and Michael Walters era at the club.

The Dockers fought back from 26 points down to hit the front in the final term but Mac Andrew levelled the scores for the Suns and then David Swallow kicked the winning point with less than 10 seconds remaining after receiving a free kick.

Fremantle honoured Fyfe at the end of the match as he was chaired off in his final game and Longmuir said the dual Brownlow medalist’s retirement added further pain to the 11.14 (80) to 12.7 (79) defeat.

“It’s devastating. Whenever you finish a season, there’s no pleasant way to go out unless you win it,” Longmuir said.

“But the way that game played out and the fact Nat is retiring and Sonny is retiring adds a lot of extra emotion. You have to stand up in front of the whole staff and group after that performance and that ending with those two greats retiring, it is really hard to put into words.

“The players are hurting. The game is a game, but it was bigger than that after the game because of the calibre of people that are leaving the club at the end of the year.”

Longmuir lamented the second quarter when they conceded seven goals and allowed the Suns to seize control. Gold Coast slammed on four goals leading into half-time to put the Dockers under pressure for the rest of the night.

Longmuir was proud of the way his team kept fighting and said the final moments came down to the Suns winning crucial contests.

“Those last four goals (of the second term) came really quickly off the back of losing our way in the contest and our shape which was really disappointing. But like we’ve done all year, we’ve embraced every challenge, we’ve fought our way back and we did that again tonight,” he said.

“If you review the last two minutes of the game, Uwland takes a great contested mark. Then JT probably should play in front of Andrew and he takes a contested mark as well. So you lose two contests.

“I don’t think it was structure or us not executing. Then Cox goes to lay a good tackle, the ball gets knocked out and he holds on too long. We didn’t do a lot wrong.”

Fremantle rose from 10th last year to host a home final and won 12 of their last 14 games to finish in sixth spot. Longmuir believes the Dockers will look back on the season believing the can take big steps in 2026.

“We’ve grown so much throughout the year with the way we play our footy, the way we embrace challenges, the way we’ve improved our footy on the road,” he said.

“It feels really hollow at the moment but once we review it, there’ll be a lot of positives to come out of it and there will be some really good stepping stones to take us forward.”