Football analyst David King has taken a dig at Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir after the Dockers slipped out of the top eight with a disappointing road loss to Sydney on Sunday.

Despite winning six games in a row and sitting just four points off Adelaide in third, David King put the blow torch on Longmuir, saying it was finals or bust for the head coach in his sixth season at the helm.

“I just think in 2026, the best job in football is coaching Fremantle,” he told First Crack.

“I look at their list, I look at where they are and the opportunities in front of this footy club, and I don’t know if that will be Justin Longmuir anymore.

“I think that he has to play finals this year in his sixth season to show that he is the man.”

Fremantle has played finals football only once since Longmuir took over the head coaching role from now St Kilda coach Ross Lyon in 2020.

However, the two seasons since have ended in bitter disappointment, with a poor start costing them a chance in 2023 and a remarkable season-ending implosion seeing the club choke in 2024.

“All the evidence (on Longmuir) put before us, you have to question. He’s gone seven wins, 10 wins, 13 wins and a half with a finals opportunity, back to 10, 12 and a half, and now sits on 10,” King said.

“Probably he’ll get to 13, but 13’s not going to be enough. He’s going to have to win against Hawthorn this week, or Collingwood the week after, or find a way to get up against the Dogs in the last game of the year on the road.”

King added he didn’t buy into the Dockers being a “young team”; instead, he pointed out their tendency to drop points to teams struggling below them on the ladder for their current predicament.

“Everyone says they’re a young team, I think that’s a nonsense. When you look at that team they had today, they had three players under 22,” he said.

“They might be experienced with some guys, but once you get to 100 games, is there a difference between 100 and 120 games?

“I don’t give them the outs that others give. You’ve got Treacy, Bolton and Reid - who’s probably going to be one of the favourites for the Rising Star - in the forward line, your midfield is stacked; Jackson we’ve talked about for half the year as being the best ruckman in the competition, Serong, Brayshaw - I know that Young’s out there and is an absence which is a concern.

“But the way they play for me leaves them vulnerable to every team. They’ve lost more games to bottom teams than anyone else. They’re six and four versus the bottom nine.

“They’ve had 10 games against the poorer opposition, which is the most in the AFL. When you look at why they’re (out of the eight), it doesn’t come back to the magnets, for me, it’s the man at the top”

“Is he the guy to take them all the way to a premiership? I just have my doubts. I think he is under the most pressure right now.”

Fremantle face two make-or-break games in the next fortnight, hosting Hawthorn in Perth before a trip to the home of football to take on the league-leading Magpies.