Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir to enter 'ongoing employment agreement'

In an unusual move, Fremantle Dockers coach Justin Longmuir's contract will be changed from a fixed-term deal to an "ongoing employment agreement" at the end of this season.

It's a change the club is selling as a commitment to him continuing in the role into 2026 and beyond.

Longmuir's current contract expires at the end of October this year, with many suggesting he was one of the coaches under the most pressure heading into the season, with the Dockers having collapsed at the end of 2024 to fall from the top four and miss the finals.

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The club now says at the completion of his current deal, Longmuir will be treated as an ongoing employee, rather than be subject to a contract of a certain number of years.

Many of the specifics of the arrangement are not yet known, and Longmuir and Dockers Chief Executive Simon Garlick were tight-lipped on details during a media conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Longmuir took over the role heading into the 2020 season, and has made the finals just once in five years, with Fremantle beating the Western Bulldogs in an elimination final in 2022, before going out at the hands of Collingwood in a semi-final the following week.

The Dockers then fell to 14th in 2023, before missing the finals by half a game last year.

'Surety and stability'

Speaking at a press conference at Dockers HQ, Garlick conceded the deal was "a bit different".

“We believe that this contract change is one that better reflects the contemporary AFL landscape and is more suitable for our club, our coach and our football department at this time.

“We also understand that it’s a bit different.”

Simon Garlick says Justin Longmuir's new employment agreement is "a bit different". (ABC News: Blake Kagi)

Garlick said Longmuir’s contract type was “commonplace in a whole range of high performance industries”.

“This provides a level of surety and stability for our club," he said.

“Most fixed-term contracts in the AFL coaching landscape have notice periods and that’s something that we’ve agreed upon.

“There’s very little change in relation to the conditions that he was operating under compared to what he [operates under moving] forward.”

Coach satisfied

Longmuir said the deal worked for him.

“As [Garlick] mentioned it benefits both parties,” he said.

“My last contract had an end date, this has no end date. It still has the same clauses in it, termination clauses.

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir and CEO Simon Garlick fronted the media at the club's headquarters. (ABC News: Blake Kagi)

“For me it gives me more security.

“For my purposes, for my job, this fits as well as I could have hoped.”

In a statement announcing the news, Garlick said the decision came after discussions with Longmuir that highlighted a shared view on senior leadership contracts.

"We are strongly invested in what we are building here at Fremantle and have high expectations on what we can achieve in the coming years," Garlick said.

"Following a number of discussions with Justin, it was clear that those expectations we set ourselves is what drives our ambitions and standards, not the length of a contract.

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"The pressure for the club to perform is always there, and leadership accountability will continue to come from regular performance evaluations and reviews that are central to our success."

'Driven as ever'

In the same club statement, Longmuir welcomed the new terms.

"The external expectation for us to perform and deliver success over the coming years is high, as it should be, and the nature of my contract doesn't change that", Longmuir said.

"I believe the variation better reflects the mechanisms that should be in place for coaches to ensure we have an adequate layer of protection and security for ourselves and our families, and we get on with the job.

"I'm as driven as ever to see this group succeed, and as a club we are all ready to embrace the standards that can deliver the period of contention and success that the Freo family deserves."

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