Fremantle senior coach Justin Longmuir has admitted that he could have approached the departure of players in 2022's trade period differently, conceding he needs to "sell opportunity" as the coach.

The Dockers had a busy end to last year, with Blake Acres (Carlton), Griffin Logue (North Melbourne), Darcy Tucker (North Melbourne), Rory Lobb (Western Bulldogs) and Lloyd Meek (Hawthorn) all departing the club.

On the flip side, Luke Jackson, Jaeger O'Meara and Josh Corbett joined the Dockers, capping off a wild trade period for Longmuir and his team.

Speaking to AFL Media as the season fast approaches, Longmuir conceded that he could have done things better in 2022 to keep some of his former players at the club.

โ€œPart of my role and maybe a part I didnโ€˜t do as well as I could have last year, is to sell opportunity to some of those guys and give them a clear explanation of where they fit in our organisation and my vision for them going forward,โ€ Longmuir delineated.

โ€œThatโ€˜s sometimes tricky to do as a senior coach, because โ€ฆ you don't want to make promises you can't keep.

โ€œIโ€˜m always trying to tread that line, but maybe I could have trod that line a little bit better.

โ€œThereโ€˜s always reflections, and we'd be negligent as a football club if we didn't reflect on all the different things that happened to us throughout the year.โ€

Logue and Meek headed elsewhere in the trade period to seek better opportunity, landing at the Kangaroos and Hawks respectively, with Longmuir admitting that he could have "sold" their spot at the club a bit better.

โ€œGriff last year probably wanted to be a backman, and we played him forward a lot and he missed out on the team early in the year,โ€ Longmuir said.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 05: Griffin Logue and Blake Acres of the Dockers celebrates a goal during the 2022 AFL Round 12 match between the Fremantle Dockers and the Brisbane Lions at Optus Stadium on June 05, 2022 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

โ€œMaybe he's one I could have sold a bit more of a bigger picture to, and Meeky was probably the other one.

โ€œMeeky probably saw us getting Luke Jackson, saw he was behind Sean Darcy and probably didnโ€˜t really see an opportunity for him at the footy club.

โ€œMaybe I could have sold that to him a bit better and had those conversations a bit more regularly with him.โ€

Fremantle's season begins on Sunday, March 19, against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium, aiming to improve on their 2022 semi-final loss this season.