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“This is election year for Fremantle”: Doubt cast over Justin Longmuir's new contract
Nic Negrepontis • February 26th, 2025 2:58 pm
Fremantle on Tuesday made the decision to give coach Justin Longmuir an ongoing contract, moving him off the standard coaching tenure cycle.
Longmuir was set to come out of contract at the end of 2025 and the Dockers say this deal locks him in for 2026 and beyond.
However, Gerard Whateley doesn’t buy the move, believing the coach’s fate remains tied to performance this season.
Many anticipate 2025 to be the year the Dockers jump up the ladder, despite still having the sixth youngest list in the competition.
“I don’t think it changes the conversation in the way that Fremantle’s actions did 12 months ago,” Whateley told SEN.
“They bought an insurance policy 12 months ago that they didn’t want the year to be about whether Longmuir would get a new contract or not – and they needed the insurance policy because he wouldn’t have kept the job given they missed the eight.
“This is election year for Fremantle. They either win or they don’t. And I’ll bet my first dollar that if they miss the eight, Justin’s rolling employment will end at the end of this season. He won’t be the coach in 2026 if Fremantle don’t make the eight.
“But this much I’ll give Fremantle, they desperately want this to work. They want Longmuir to be their first premiership coach and they’ve now twice gone out of their way to create the best possible environment for him to succeed.
“Where I think the coach might have shortchanged himself is if they’re about to be successful in the way they have built, and they do believe they’re about to be successful, it’s like he’s moved from a fixed interest rate to the variable interest rate. He’ll miss out on the long-term contract extension that would come with success.”
Kane Cornes thinks similarly, describing the contract as a potential “death sentence” for Longmuir.
“This has been spun as a way to give Justin some security, but I don't see it that way at all. I think this is almost a death sentence for him unless something extraordinary happens where he has success and, no worries, he'll feel a bit more secure,” Cornes told SEN’s Sportsday.
“But if things get off to a poor start and if they underachieve with where their list is at, this is just an easy way for the club to move him on. It's a much easier way than having to extend his contract now by at least two years beyond this one.
“If you aren't confident come the end of this year where you'd have to pay him out for those full two years, if he has that in his contract, now it's just, 'We'll give you a six-month payout and bang you're gone'.
“So, I don't think this is a vote of confidence at all for the Fremantle coach as much as the club's spinning it that way.”
Fremantle hosts Melbourne on Sunday in their AAMI Community Series game, before traveling to Geelong to face the Cats in Round 1.
