FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir says the Dockers are aware key forward Pat Voss "treads a fine line" with the way he engages opposition players after the goalkicker taunted Melbourne defender Harrison Petty in Saturday night's win at Optus Stadium. 

Voss flew the flag for teammates in an impressive 48-point win and was theatrical when he lifted wingman Ed Langdon over his shoulder and carried him over the boundary line in the final term. 

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His exchange with Petty at quarter-time also caught attention, however, and was a talking point after the match, with Voss taunting the backman repeatedly and rubbing his eyes in a crying gesture. 

The context of Voss's exchange was not clear, but Petty was sledged inappropriately by Dayne Zorko in 2022 in an incident that left him visibly upset, with the dual Brisbane premiership star later apologising for his on-field comment.  

Longmuir said he was making his way to ground level before quarter-time on Saturday night and didn't see the incident but would talk to his key forward about the exchange. 

"He treads a fine line, but I think he gets most of it right. I'll follow up with him, have a chat and see what that is," Longmuir said after the Dockers' first win of the season. 

"He tries to help his teammates out who are getting tagged. He goes after target players for us or players we want to try and negate from the opposition. 

"He does a lot right in that sense. We understand he treads a fine line at times, and he's got to manage that."

Longmuir was pleased with his team's ability to play its way for longer on Saturday night, using handball chains to score heavily and breaking the game open with seven-goal bursts in the first and third quarters. 

After producing two brilliant opening quarters to start the season, the coach said his team had focused on starting well and reversing a trend from 2025. 

"We've probably talked about our first quarters a little bit more [and] pre-game we have shown a bit of vision around how we start games and how we get into games," Longmuir said.  

"Sometimes players maybe lean into valuing possessions and getting into the game through possessions, but we've tried to explain that there's so many ways that players can get into the game.

"I don't know whether that's translated into us starting games valuing the right things in games, but our contest has been really strong, which gives you field position and then our front half 'D' [defence] has been really strong.

"I feel like we really trust ourselves with ball in hand and as good as our first quarter was, I felt like we left a few out there. I thought there was 10 goals in that first quarter."

Longmuir paid credit to star midfielder Caleb Serong, who was clamped by young Demon Koltyn Tholstrup but worked hard to create opportunities for teammates as the Dockers got on top in the midfield. 

He was pleased with defender Luke Ryan's performance after he was called up as a late replacement for Brandon Walker, who experienced soreness late in the week and couldn't get up for the game. 

On debutant Chris Scerri, who impressed with 20 disposals and five score involvements, Longmuir said: "I thought he had real impact and I love the way he trusted himself to back his pace in. For his first game at AFL level to have that as a weapon and back it in was great to see. So yeah, thought he had a super debut."

Melbourne coach Steven King said it was clear his team's fundamentals were not up to speed after being forced into turnovers by the Dockers' pressure in a frantic first quarter that saw the margin balloon out to 42 points. 

King said he was pleased with the team's ability to respond in the second quarter and cut the margin to 20 points, as well as its fighting attitude late in the game.  

"Clearly the way we wanted to play is not embedded yet but really pleased with the group to not capitulate and throw the towel in," King said. 

"At quarter-time, things could have got really ugly but as a coach I loved the response of the group. 

"It's certainly a steep learning curve for a few of our young players on the road.

"Our fundamentals weren't up to speed, so I'm not going to make excuses for that. They put us under enormous pressure and we couldn't handle it tonight." 

King said key defender Daniel Turner had suffered a hand injury and experienced swelling, with the 24-year-old set to undergo scans to determine the exact nature of the injury.