Senior coach Justin Longmuir has praised players in and outside of his team after Fremantle notched a hard-fought nine-point win over Geelong at Optus Stadium on Thursday night.

With Brennan Cox, Matthew Johnson and Caleb Serong all recalled from injury for the Cats clash, Longmuir says he doesn’t think tough calls at selection is adding extra motivation for men in the 23.

“I think we’ve been a pretty desperate team all year,” said Justin Longmuir.

“As a Club, we’re in a really good spot with our injury list.

“I thought the players who returned tonight all played their roles and it was a really even performance.”

Oscar McDonald, Jaeger O’Meara and Corey Wagner were all omitted and will play for Peel Thunder in the WAFL on Saturday.

“There's some players who are really stiff to miss out on tonight who’ll go back and improve their footy at Peel and wait for the opportunity,” said Longmuir.

“They’re hard conversations for me to have, but they’re harder for the player to hear because they’re in good form.

“I think sometimes players realise that they’re in the team because of injury and probably that may be the case with Oscar (McDonald) who’s come in and done a really good job, but knew he got his opportunity because of injury and Coxy (Brennan) comes back.

“The other two that missed out - they were stiff.

“Both have been playing their roles really well, but we’ve got a lot of players through the middle of the ground who are performing and a lot of players on our list who are playing really good footy.

“It’s a good position to be in as a Club. I thought they handled it really well.

“Sometimes when you get left out of the team when you think you shouldn’t, you can take some energy away from the group, but if anything they added energy with a real mature response and I’m sure they’ll go out and play well and be ready when an opportunity presents.”