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Stand-in Fremantle coach Jaymie Graham has declared he will happily hand back the hot seat to Justin Longmuir on Monday, content to return to being an assistant coach.
Graham filled in as coach for the past two games while Longmuir was in COVID protocols and the Dockers won both of those contests. The 39-year-old also coached West Coast when Adam Simpson was unavailable during 2018 and won that match, giving him three victories from three attempts.
Ashley Hansen (Carlton) and Blake Caracella (Essendon) also tasted victory after stepping in to become fill-in senior coaches for their clubs in the opening rounds. But Graham said he didn’t do the job to enhance his own long-term career prospects.
“As far as my opportunities go, it’s not about me,” Graham said.
“It’s a great experience for me to be able to experience what I’ve done. However, nothing changed for me. I’m really focused on my role at Fremantle. I’m enjoying my time here and the environment that we’ve got. It’s just been a good experience but I’m looking forward to JL getting back on board.
“I’ve worked out how much busier coaching is and what JL goes through. There’s all the questions you get asked throughout the week.
“But in my case, we had JL available. It’s helped in these last couple of years with COVID – we got used to doing meetings on Teams and Zoom. He’s been around and has been great support for our coaching group. He still played an important role while not being able to be here.”
Saturday’s 13.10 (88) to 8.6 (54) win over Greater Western Sydney came thanks to significant contributions from several new faces.
Will Brodie had a career-high 37 disposals while also winning six clearances and Nathan O’Driscoll kicked 2.2 from 20 possessions in just his second full AFL game.
Graham said Brodie and O’Driscoll had been encouraged to focus on their strengths and were now reaping the rewards.
“Brodie is a mature body. We know contested possession is one of his strengths,” Graham said.
“I think he had 20 contested possessions so he was really important for us inside.
“Dris is playing great footy. I think in the third quarter he really stepped it up. He’s a high workrate player and he kept on working.
“We’re really rapt with what he’s been producing. He’s like a number of our young guys. He plays to his strengths.”
