Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir said defender Brennan Cox will be in line to play his first AFL game of 2026 if he gets through main training on Thursday.

Speaking at his Thursday morning media conference, Longmuir said Cox won’t train fully but had a strong showing at Tuesday’s session and would be in line to make his return against the Tigers.

“Brennan will come back in if he does what he has to today,” Longmuir said.

“He got through training really well on Tuesday and feels really good.

“We want to get him going and into the season.

“He's got to do a little bit today, he won't do the whole session because he trained well on Tuesday, but we expect him to come back in.

“We haven't dug deep on selection yet.”

Cox has had a delayed start to the season after suffering a calf injury against West Coast in the pre-season.

He sat out the pre-season win over Adelaide and missed the first two games of Fremantle’s official campaign, with the Club taking a cautious approach with the 135-game player.

Longmuir confirmed Cox is the only current potential change to his side following the win over the Demons in Round 2, but Fremantle’s final team of 23 will be finalised later on Thursday at 3.20pm WST on fremantlefc.com.au.

Speaking on the conditions for Saturday, Longmuir said his team was preparing as if the game would commence as scheduled.

“Sometimes you can have a lot more stoppages, repeat stoppages in the wet,” Longmuir said.

“We were good in the wet last year, so we revisited a couple of those things that we did, which made us really competitive in those games.

“Sometimes you wonder how early to go with that messaging because the forecast can be a bit unpredictable, but it looks like we're going to get a fair dose of rain.”

Fremantle and Richmond are scheduled to commence at 1.15pm WST on Saturday 28 March at Optus Stadium.

Fans are reminded that on Saturday, supporters will be required to adhere to Optus Stadium’s new SafeTix system to enter the venue.