Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has declared the club’s plan to get star midfielder Hayden Young fit for finals had worked perfectly after he produced his second match winning display in as many weeks to help the Dockers produce an extraordinary comeback and win through to the grand final.
The Dockers trailed by 28 points in the third quarter against Sydney at the SCG but Young kicked a goal from the boundary line after the three quarter time siren to give his team hope. Then he had eight possessions in the final quarter as Fremantle kicked another five unanswered goals to win by 12 points.
Having also been dynamic last week, Longmuir said the club had been wary of rushing Young back from multiple injuries all season and that had clearly paid off after he finished with 28 possessions and one goal.
“The goal was a super kick. Wouldn’t want it in anyone else’s hands and it gave us a bit of energy,” he said.
“It hasn’t necessarily been about making sure we get him to play, 85% or 90% of game time. It’s been to get him to play his role for as long as we can, and we probably think that’s around 70 to 75%.
“But 75% of Hayden Young is way better than zero per cent. He’s able to yeah influence the game in a lot of different ways, and I think he’s starting to yeah really peak at the right time.
“I thought it took a really big step forward last week and his physicality was really good all night. He was one of the winners we had in the first half. And to get his moment on three quarter time and finish it gave us gave us a lift.”
Longmuir reminded his players at three quarter time that they had fought back from large deficits several times this season, including against Sydney.
He he urged them to attack and risk losing the game by a big margin to give themselves a chance to win.
“You’ve got to risk it to win it,” he said.
“We were four goals behind, so we needed to get something going our way. We felt like we needed to get some better quality entries. I thought again, with our backs to the wall, some of our some of our best players got to work and really ignited us.”
Airlines responded by adding flights to get Dockers fans to Melbourne.
Virgin Australia added 11 flights to their schedule straight after the game, including one that departs at 5am on grand final day. Qantas added 13 flights amid the expectation of a scramble to get across the country.
Longmuir hopes fans soak up the chance to see their team in a grand final.
“They can enjoy it,” he said.
“They should be really proud of the team they support. We’ve given them a ride. We haven’t done it the easy way, which is probably a little bit like our way and bit of what they sign up for. But we’ve given ourselves a shot, so they should be proud of the team.”
The Dockers will return to Perth on Saturday and watch their reserves play in the WAFL grand final for Peel Thunder on Sunday. Longmuir said they will soon assess whether any players should be rested from Peel in case they are needed for the AFL grand final.
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