Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has expressed pride in the way his team accepted and handled the pressure from their poor start to the season after producing an emphatic 38-point win over West Coast.

The Dockers ended a six-game losing streak which began in August last year to win 15.16 (106) to 10.8 (68) as vice-captain Caleb Serong equalled Paul Hasleby’s record of four Glendinning-Allan Medals.

Fremantle have been under intense scrutiny following their poor start and Longmuir said the players had done him proud.

“I’m really, really proud of the way we’ve handled the last two weeks,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of pressure on us which is understandable given our performance against Geelong. But we’ve stuck firm to our process, our focus has been on improving our footy and I thought we took a step forward with that (on Sunday).

“The scoreboard probably doesn’t indicate the dominance of that performance. It was plus-30 inside-50s at one stage in the last couple of minutes. It was strong contested ball and strong front-half defence.

“I thought that’s a good indication of how we want to play. There’s still a lot of improvement left in us. But largely we played for each other (on Sunday)... there was a smaller gap between our best and worst and the product was more like how we want it to look.”

Longmuir heaped praise on Serong after he dominated with 35 disposals and 10 clearances to lead by example. Serong also won the Glendinning-Allan Medal in 2021, 2023 and last season.

“He’s one of the most consistent players in the AFL,” Longmuir said.

“That’s because he’s one of the most consistent players between games in the AFL. He recovers well, reviews his game well and trains well.

“One of the younger players went up to him during the week and said ‘geez you were angry in that handball game and he goes ‘no I wasn’t. That’s training. That’s how I train.’ That’s what he does. He trains at a high level, prepares at a high level and plays at a high level. He’s a great role model.”

Fremantle lost Jaeger O’Meara (ill) and Corey Wagner (calf) leading into the game and they joined Hayden Young, Nat Fyfe, Sean Darcy, Sam Switkowski , Michael Walters and Brandon Walker on the club’s lengthy injury list. The Dockers breathed a sigh of relief when captain Alex Pearce avoided injury despite hobbling off during the match.

Longmuir expects Young, Fyfe and Darcy to be available to face the Western Bulldogs on Sunday.

“Fyfey has strung a few together. We’ll see where he sits. Sean and Youngy should be back next week at some level. We’ll work that our during the week,” he said.

“The cavalry is coming but I think the product we put out today with the team we put out was really strong as well. Our goal as a footy club now is to handle this week like we’ve handled the last two weeks and work hard to put out a better performance next week.”