Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir says the Club’s first appearance in finals since 2022 is one the team is relishing, believing the contested nature of September football will be something they thrive from.

Speaking following the Club’s thrilling 15-point win over the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, Longmuir explained that the belief to bounce back after Round 23’s loss to the Lions was present all week.

“Coming off the Brisbane game, we didn’t catastrophise it,” Longmuir said.

“We got back on the horse pretty quickly, straightened up with some pretty simple focuses, and I felt like that sort of performance was coming all week.

"The thing that holds us in really good stead - and the thing that gave us really good confidence coming into this game - is that our record against the top nine sides has been better than our record against the teams lower than us.

"We seem to play our best footy against the better teams, as you saw for periods of tonight.

"I think we’ve had seven wins against the top nine sides now. The players will get a lot of belief and confidence out of that.

"Contested games seem to suit us, so yeah, we are looking forward to it (finals football).”

Arguably, the Club’s best quarter of football came in the second quarter, when the side put on a clinic to boot 7.2 to the Bulldogs’ three behinds.

The quarter was Fremantle’s highest-scoring term for the year, passing the previous best of 40 points scored against West Coast in Round 21.

“I thought there wasn’t much we didn’t get right in terms of phases of the game,” Longmuir said.

“I thought we were really strong in the contest; we were able to pressure the Dogs well.

"When we didn’t score going forward, we were able to defend our front half really well and get re-entries.

"It was as close to as good as we’ve played.”

While the forward and midfield connection resulted in scoreboard return, down back the defensive unit won their own battles - with skipper Alex Pearce holding Sam Darcy goalless, Brennan Cox restricting Aaron Naughton and Luke Ryan directing traffic.

“They were all pretty solid,” Longmuir said.

“I thought they all had some pretty key moments in the game.

"Coxy was probably the pick of the bunch in terms of being one player who jumped into the game the way we wanted to.

"He was playing decisively and was really strong in the contest early.

"Pearcy had the job on Darcy most of the night and held him goalless, which I couldn’t imagine has happened too much this year.”

Fremantle will now wait on the results of other games to determine their opponent in week one of the finals.