FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir says claims of a rift between he and star Michael Walters are "a long way from the truth", denying the All-Australian will be dropped as he searches for form in a permanent forward role.
Walters has moved out of the midfield in the past two seasons after a career-best 2019, making way for the Dockers' next generation of onballers, led by Andrew Brayshaw, Adam Cerra and Caleb Serong.
His dip in form this season prompted former Fremantle assistant Peter Sumich to declare the 30-year-old was at loggerheads with Longmuir over his role in the team.
Longmuir denied there was a rift when questioned about it, saying there was no way he was dropping Walters for Saturday's clash with Hawthorn in Tasmania.
"He's not getting dropped," Longmuir said on Wednesday.
"We'll continue to work with him to create more opportunities for him to get into the game.
"I'm really happy with some of the stuff he's doing. If you watch the game closely, he's (open) a lot and we're not quite finding him at times.
"There's some things he can do to create some more opportunities for himself, but he's not getting dropped. We'll continue to support him and help him turn his form around."
Sumich suggested a rift had developed between Longmuir and Walters, claiming the experienced campaigner was keen to move back into the midfield.
Longmuir denied the rift.
"That's a long way from the truth. He hasn't had the output he would like, or we would like, but I'm really confident he can turn it around," Longmuir told Perth's Channel Seven.
"We've seen some real growth in his ability to execute a role for the team and his leadership has grown enormously over the last 18 months.
"We'll do all we can to help him get back into form and impact games like he used to, but as far as me and him having a rift, that's far from the truth."
Walters' move out of the midfield has gathered pace this season after a gradual reduction in onball minutes last year.
The classy star spent 58.9 per cent time in the midfield in 2019, when he was named a Therabody All-Australian as one of the AFL's most damaging ball-users forward of centre.
That reduced to 43 per cent last season when he was still a regular in centre bounces. This year he has spent just 18.7 per cent game time in the middle.
His centre bounce attendances are down from 12.9 a game in 2019 to just 4.3 this season, with the Dockers committing to their future midfield.
While Walters' output is down, there is one stat that shows his skill has not deserted him.
In 2019, when Walters booted 40 goals to finish runner-up in the Doig Medal, he had a kicking efficiency going inside 50 of 62.1 per cent.
He is getting less opportunities to kick into attack this season, but when he does that efficiency has barely moved and now sits at 61.9 per cent.
Still, the five-time leading goalkicker's form has come under scrutiny after his nine-disposal game against Carlton and a missed shot on goal from 30m, with Longmuir conceding post-match it had become an issue.
The coach was reluctant to change his midfield mix too much but said the Dockers had tried deploying Walters further up the ground and then allowing him to drift forward.
"I thought that worked all right, and it’s something we’ll look at," he said.
"Our midfield is pretty set, so there’s only a certain amount of blokes you can play through the midfield.
"(But) we’ll keep looking at ways we can get him into the game."
