Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir has ruled out forward Sam Switkowski ahead of Saturday’s Elimination Final against the Gold Coast SUNS at Optus Stadium.
Speaking at his Thursday morning media conference ahead of the Club’s main training session, Longmuir revealed that Switkowski was unable to recover from the knee injury he suffered against the Western Bulldogs in Round 24.
“He’s not going to play this week,” Longmuir said.
“We had hopes earlier in the week that he’d get up, but that knee injury he sustained late in the game against the Dogs will hold him out this week, unfortunately.”
Longmuir discussed several potential inclusions to replace Switkowski, noting that a number of players would put their hand up for selection later on Thursday.
“We’ve got some options. I won’t go too much into selection as we’ve got to get through training, but Duds (Isaiah Dudley) will come into the mix,” Longmuir said.
“(Matthew Johnson) is tracking well. He’s still not 100% over that ankle injury, but he’s training well and will come into the mix for that role.
“(Nathan) O’Driscoll went back and played a really solid game (in the WAFL) after being left out of the team.
“(Jeremy) Sharp has worked on aspects of his game, so we’ve got some options to come in and cover for those guys.”
Touching on the specific head-to-head clash with Gold Coast, Longmuir believes the midfield could prove to be the battlefield where the Elimination Final is won or lost.
TICKET UPDATE 🚨
— Fremantle Dockers (@freodockers) September 4, 2025
a very limited secondary release of tickets for our Elimination Final will be made available to the general public at 2pm WST today via Ticketmaster.
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“It’s going to be a good battle,” Longmuir said.
“They’ve got a really strong ruckman in there who gives their mids first use, so we need to stop his influence to start with.
“A lot has been spoken about (Matt) Rowell, (Noah) Anderson, and how (Touk) Miller complements them as well.
“I feel like we handled it for periods of the game up there last time. It felt like the game swung on the contest and clearance a little bit.
“We need to be locked in, but we’ll back our boys in.
“I think we’ve got the best ruck combination in the competition, and I think at ground level we’ve shown throughout the year we can match it with anyone.”
Fremantle’s final team of 23 will be named at 4:20pm WST later today at fremantlefc.com.au.
