General manager of football Peter Bell has long felt that Justin Longmuir had the potential to successfully lead a football club as a senior coach. 

Longmuir, who was announced as Fremantle’s new senior coach on Monday, played 139-games for Freo between 1999 and 2007, with seven seasons as a teammate of Bell’s.

Speaking alongside his former teammate at Monday’s media conference, Bell had particular praise for Longmuir’s dedication to developing as a coach after his career was cut short due to a degenerative knee injury at the age of 26.

Longmuir first started as a development coach at Fremantle in 2010 and took on high-ranking roles at West Coast and Collingwood through his 10 years as an assistant coach. 

“Justin always struck me as a really considered and thoughtful person and he had some strong views and philosophies on football,” Bell said. 

“From afar, just watching his development and how much he wanted to continue to improve to get this opportunity, it was something that I think the whole football world noticed.

“He’s (shown) the initiative to go to Melbourne to go to a great club like the Collingwood Football Club to improve his coaching abilities and (he spent) a long time at West Coast as well as Fremantle.

“Thinking back to those years when he was a teammate, when you reflect on it, you could see there was a coach in there.”

Fremantle president Dale Alcock echoed Bell’s comments and said that it was ‘terrific’ to have Longmuir on board. 

“We’re delighted, after what has been a thorough and comprehensive process, to have secured a person of Justin Longmuir’s capability and calibre to be the next senior coach of the Fremantle Dockers,” Alcock said.

“Given the high quality of the final candidates, we were very particular to ensure that we made a very considered decision.

“Justin stood out for us as someone who has been preparing for this role over the past 10 years.

“He’s had a successful career as an assistant coach at both West Coast and more recently at Collingwood. He knows what is required to win and what’s required for sustained success.”