Fremantle’s lacklustre performances in successive away games against Greater Western Sydney and Port Adelaide are precisely why the team won’t consider resting players, according to Justin Longmuir, with the Dockers coach making it clear they must improve despite their dominant position on the ladder.

The Dockers fought back from 14 points down against Port Adelaide to win 15.13 (103) to 11.9 (75) at Adelaide Oval, after kicking five goals in a 10-minute burst during the third quarter.

The victory gave Fremantle a three-win gap on top of the ladder due to Sydney’s loss to Adelaide on Friday. But Longmuir said the Dockers must address the way they are preparing for games against teams that are in the bottom half of the ladder and start better interstate, particularly when they play matches early in the day.

Longmuir has rejected calls to rest players this season and said their form isn’t as good as their ladder position.

“If you watch today’s footy, we can’t flirt with our form too much,” Longmuir said.

“We’ve got to improve on our footy from what you saw today. We’re still striving to be a team that can play anywhere against anyone. Clearly we’re not the finished product with what we put out there today. So we won’t be flirting with our form too much.

“There’s some controllables in the game that we have full control over, in terms of the way we set the ground up, the way we connect with each other, the mindset in which we play, and it’s just been off in our last couple of travels - early in particular.

“Centre bounce stoppage in general was an issue in the first half. I was happy with the way our mids got to work in the second half and clearly winning at the centre bounce. Contests allow us to play the game in our front half, and when we get the game looking like that, we’re a hard team to stop.

“I’m proud of the way the players were able to turn the game. That’s something we weren’t able to do in the GWS game. I’m really proud of the way they they did it today.”

Hayden Young returned after missing one week with a groin injury and won 20 possessions playing as both a forward and midfielder.

But the Dockers lost midfielder Jaeger O’Meara to an ankle injury during the second half. The club doesn’t have any indication of how long he could be sidelined for.

Fremantle will now prepare to face West Coast during Friday night’s derby and that will be another game where they are raging hot favourite.

Longmuir said players cannot afford to take any teams lightly given the way they’ve performed against the Giants and Power.

“I‘m sure there’s some players that were slightly off in in that sense. I think maybe we’re going into games thinking it’s going to look like our game without without imposing ourselves and making it look like our game,” he said.

“I thought in the third quarter we made it look out like made it look like our game because we were willing to get our hands dirty,

“We were willing to win contests all over the ground, we were willing to defend our front half, and then the game looks like it, but we just weren’t we weren’t up for that.”