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Simpson "bullish" on Fremantle ahead of Thursday's opener
Jaiden Sciberras • May 8th, 2025 3:02 pm
Former Eagles coach Adam Simpson has remained bullish on Fremantle, confident that the Dockers can bounce back against Collingwood.
Ahead of tonight’s contest at Optus Stadium, Fremantle have been at the forefront of media attention following their disappointing 61-point loss to St Kilda in Round 8.
With many expressing their frustrations surrounding the Dockers, Simpson remains confident that the team, led by coach Justin Longmuir, can find their feet in tonight’s home clash.
“I’m still bullish on Fremantle,” Simpson told SEN’s Whateley.
“My expectations were different than probably most people at the start of the year.
“I think they’re just working their way through what a really good team needs to look like in the future.
“The pressure is on. They’ve put it on themselves with their performance last week. It almost feels like a win is just meeting expectations, so it’ll be relief more than anything if they do win.
“As much as it’s probably a regression from last year, if they win tonight and they are 5-4, the season is still alive.
“Relax on the catastrophe of last week, I think in the long run they’re going to be fine. They’re going through a bit of a period at the moment, and it’s really important that your leaders stand up.
“I think tonight is really important, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world right now.”
It was reported mid-week that the Pies would rest several of their senior players following an intense three-point loss to Geelong on Saturday night.
Off the five-day break, coach Craig McRae announced that the club will be resting Scott Pendlebury, Brayden Maynard and Jordan De Goey for their trip out West, while Brody Mihocek will also miss with an abdominal concern.
While the absence of key Pies will benefit the Dockers, Simpson believes that the announcement won’t have any effect on the confidence of either side.
“They are old, but they don’t look old…. This is the point where they are old,” he continued.
“They need to have a bit of a spell; there’s a bye coming up mid-season and this is a little gap-filler where quite often teams look at playing interstate and they see that as an opportunity to rest some older guys.
“Freo and 'Longy' would be loving that. They’d take that any day of the week, I don’t think that will be put up in the locker room, I think that’s just an opportunity to play a slightly inferior Collingwood side.
“I can’t see Collingwood having any less confidence with those players out of the side, and I can’t see Fremantle having any more confidence outside of ‘they’re missing a couple of good players’.
“I still think Freo should be leaning on their system, if they truly believe in it which I think they do, I think they believe in their coach, I think they believe in their system.
“Apart from the last four weeks last year they should have been playing finals. There’s been two or three stinkers this year, but I still think they believe in their system.
“We’ll see how it goes.”
The first bounce is set for 8:10pm AEST tonight.
