Fremantle Senior Coach Justin Longmuir says the team will aim to exploit the Bombers’ lack of height in defence, but won’t be complacent with ball delivery inside forward 50.

Speaking at his Tuesday morning media conference, Longmuir believes playing the team’s brand of football will be essential to securing a win at Optus Stadium on Thursday night.

“At times that (height) can be one to exploit," Longmuir said.

"It’s probably about circumstances and making sure we work well together as a forward line to try and create isolation.

"You can try to exploit their lack of tall defenders and you end up bombing it into packs all the time, and you don’t really get the method you want.

"So largely, it will just be about playing our way.

"We spoke to the players about understanding that they’ve got a couple of things we want to exploit, but then there are a couple of real strengths they have that we need to make sure we’re across as well.” 

Reflecting on last weekend's narrow win over North Melbourne, Longmuir said the team will look to apply lessons from that game against the Bombers.

Despite being -12 in inside 50s on the night (48–60), Longmuir said clearance and field position would be key focus areas to address on Thursday.

“Field position was a little bit of an issue for us all night. It felt like we turned the ball over a little bit too much between the arcs, which fed their inside 50s,” Longmuir said.

“I thought clearance was the issue early. We got stuck in our back half, and it’s hard to tackle inside our forward 50 when the ball is not there.”

Meanwhile, Longmuir confirmed that captain Alex Pearce would miss the clash with the Bombers due to a shin injury.

“It’s going to be a bit too tight to get him up this week,” Longmuir said.

“He probably hasn’t quite progressed the way we wanted him to.

"To get him up for this week, everything would’ve had to go perfectly and it just hasn’t.”

Bouncedown for Fremantle’s clash with Essendon at Optus Stadium on Thursday night is at 6.10pm WST.