TUCKED underneath the old Subiaco Oval, with a bright red pot full of green tea and a television high on the wall, Phil Walsh's office became a coaching classroom for a young Justin Longmuir. 

Walsh kept a whiteboard out the front of the small glass office opposite West Coast coach John Worsfold's room with the names of the players he needed to see, and they would rotate through, rubbing their name out as they left. But Longmuir never waited for an invitation.

The young assistant coach would duck in frequently for informal chats that could last hours on anything from game style to coaching philosophy to the latest trends emerging in American sport. 

As strategy and innovation coach, Walsh was passionate about team defence. He was a generous teacher, particularly if you shared his interests, and he had a curious student from the moment Longmuir started with the Eagles as backline development coach in 2011. 

Walsh's office was tight, so Longmuir would need to sit right alongside the eccentric coach to watch vision of the matches Walsh had coded himself from start to finish with his own critical eye. 

Over the next three years, the strategy guru would become the most important mentor in Longmuir's coaching journey, which included a sliding doors moment at the end of 2014 when Walsh won the Adelaide senior job and quickly tried to convince Longmuir to join him at the Crows. 

Instead, Longmuir stayed with the Eagles, eventually joined Collingwood under Nathan Buckley and, on Saturday night after 59 games in charge of Fremantle, will become the fourth coach to lead the Dockers into finals, ending the club's six-season absence from September. 

A modern AFL coach with one of the game's sharpest tactical minds, Longmuir looks back on that time with Walsh as some of the most formative in his 10-year coaching apprenticeship.  

Former Carlton coach and now Richmond assistant David Teague was a young backline coach at West Coast when Longmuir arrived, and he saw how Walsh took the former Docker under his wing. 

"'Longy' really valued his opinion and Phil really cared about his development as a coach as well, so they had a really strong relationship," Teague told AFL.com.au.

"Justin just quizzed him and kept asking him questions. It's one of his great skills. He has a thirst to get better, so he'd ask questions on all different parts of the game and different experiences. 

"It wasn't just tactics either. It was things like team dynamics, the psychology of the game, different cultures. He'd ask about everything." 

That time with Walsh instilled in Longmuir the importance of knowledge on the game, teaching your players in the right way, and always striving to improve your own coaching craft. 

Conversations were always two-way as well, and Walsh had a way of making the Eagles' younger coaches feel important by always seeking their opinion. 

It's a trait that Longmuir now shares, with Fremantle colleagues describing the coach as "more of a listener than a talker" and a different personality to the traditional senior coach. 

Chris Connolly, who coached Longmuir at Fremantle between 2002 and 2007 in the final six seasons of his 139-game career, believes people can misread the 41-year-old and underrate his coaching "street smarts" because he is not as extroverted as others in his profession. 

A trait from his playing days as a talented ruck/forward that was now serving him well as a coach was his willingness to help others while still staying focused on his own goals. 

"It is an innate thing that a player can be so driven and focused on their own goals but still lend themselves to teammates and be a driver of the team," Connolly told AFL.com.au.

"I've played with a lot of great players who just can't do that, and they end up leaders within clubs because of their on-field performance.   

"But then you have these players who also have the ability to lend themselves to others, and Justin has that. 

"He's that type of person when you meet him, he's more interested in what's going on with you than with himself. It's just in him." 

A key season in Longmuir's career, and his eventual path to coaching, was 2006, when Fremantle found the sweet spot with its football and rode a wave of momentum all the way to a preliminary final. 

It was a year in which the trust, connection and clarity among players peaked and resulted in a club record nine-game winning streak leading into finals. 

"Everything was free-flowing, and we were in automatic," former Fremantle captain Shaun McManus told AFL.com.au.

"It was weird in that sense that there was so much synergy and once we got rolling it was like what we've seen with Collingwood this year. 

"Justin does talk now about connectivity in the team and being on the same page and almost moving as one. That's what happened in that period." 

At the same time the Dockers were rolling, however, Longmuir was on a severely modified program that saw him join main training twice for the season because of a degenerative right knee injury. 

He would play only two games in 2007 before being placed on the long-term injury list in April, undergoing an operation in July to try and save his career but eventually retiring at the end of the season with two years to run on his contract. 

"From a coaching point of view, his injury probably allowed him to sort out his passion for the game and really think about where he wanted to go in the game," Connolly said. 

"Once he made that decision, he really committed himself and followed the pathway that he has." 

The first stop for Longmuir was recruiting, working with Fremantle's Perth-based recruiter Phil Smart and showing a knack for talent spotting with his bullish early assessments of future Dockers Nat Fyfe and Stephen Hill. 

Quiet and reserved, he had a way of expressing strong views in a respectful way and displayed an excellent work ethic, travelling to South Australia and Victoria to scout talent. 

He quickly found that he missed the camaraderie of a football program, however, and made his first foray into coaching with West Perth in the WAFL the following year. A role in the Dockers' development program followed in 2010.

It was there that head of development Simon Lloyd instilled in him the importance of organisation and lesson plans. Now as senior coach, Longmuir will plan out the entire pre-season on a single document in the off-season with detailed goals and outcomes for the program. 

After one season in development at Fremantle, Longmuir felt a need to experience a different football club and met with West Coast, with Walsh part of a panel that interviewed him. 

He progressed through the ranks under Worsfold and then Adam Simpson, from backline development to forward line coach to senior assistant. 

His investment in his own craft went into overdrive too, with Walsh's passion for American sport rubbing off on Longmuir, who sought coaching inspiration from everything from the NFL and NBA to surfing, skiing and golf. 

He took an interest in the level of player empowerment employed by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and organised his own study tour to the United States at the end of 2017, leaning on contacts to get a foot in the door at the NFL's Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks. 

Fremantle players now talk about the level of empowerment they are given by Longmuir. The coach arrived with the philosophy of 'be your best self, and everything we do, we do together'. But from there, the team's trademark is set and driven by the players. Constant improvement is a focus they embrace. 

"He's given me the confidence to play to my strengths and go out each week with a clear focus," small forward Lachie Schultz, who has played all but one game this season and kicked a career-best 28 goals, told AFL.com.au.

"His communication is second to none and he's always telling you what needs to be improved on. 

"There were a lot of times he could have easily given up on me, but he stuck fat with me and I'm still repaying him to this day."

Longmuir's trip to Cleveland and Seattle came at the end of his seven years with West Coast, and before his two years with Collingwood, which served as the finishing touch on his coaching apprenticeship. 

He took charge of team defence under Buckley, played a crucial role in the 2018 Grand Final season, and experienced life at a big Melbourne club. 

The decision to move across the country with his young family had been the clearest sign yet that Longmuir wanted to test himself and become a senior coach. To that point, colleagues had been unsure if he wanted to take that step. 

"I didn't know if he wanted to be the main guy and in the spotlight," Teague said. 

"Sitting in front of the players and discussing football and learning and life, he would enjoy that more than being up the front behind microphones and a camera. 

"But he's absolutely grown as far as the speaking and being the centre of attention. It's not who he is, and it's probably not who he wants to be, but it's part of the role."

Introduced as Fremantle coach on the Monday after the 2019 Grand Final, Longmuir's tenure started with a focus on connecting with his players and staff, and making sure roles were allocated in a way that helped everybody thrive.  

He employed performance psychologist Neil McLean from West Coast and encouraged players to work on the mental side of their game. For his coaches, he used former Cricket Australia elite coaching manager Darren Holder to help them work on their craft. 

He quickly showed an ability to get the best out of players of all levels, implemented a team defence that was incredibly well drilled, and made savvy tactical moves like this season's shift of Griffin Logue into attack. 

Michael Walters is a prime example of a player he has been able to work with and find a new purpose for as a pressure forward after the club's new breed took ownership of the midfield. 

"It's the genuine conversations he has on growth mindset and helping players get better," Walters told AFL.com.au.

"He gave me that mindset to be better as a person and player … and you can see it in my leadership and drive to make the team better." 

The idea that Longmuir has the traits of a modern AFL coach was picked up on by Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall after one of the most significant wins of the Dockers' season, against Melbourne at the MCG in round 11. 

As Dockers players celebrated with fans, Longmuir walked across the ground deep in conversation with senior player David Mundy. 

"I still love looking at Justin Longmuir and the composure after a victory like that," Dunstall said on the Fox Footy broadcast. 

"This is a win to savour. You've come over and accomplished something pretty big. But he is so level-headed. He doesn't let emotion carry him away. He's just always looking at the bigger picture." 

It was a comment that marries up with the picture painted by those inside Fremantle, and Longmuir's past colleagues and teammates, who note that his emotion in the coaches' box rarely carries over to his addresses to the players. 

"I've got no doubt he would be strong when he needs to be, but ideally he has another method to connect with his players and get messages across," Teague said. 

In October 2014, when Walsh was appointed Adelaide coach, Longmuir had the difficult task of telling his mentor he couldn't move from Perth at that stage. The pair continued to catch up, however, for a coffee and green tea whenever Walsh flew into town with the Crows. 

The Adelaide boss had forgiven him for hiding his bright red teapot at West Coast and remained generous with his guidance under the time constraints of a senior coach. 

His tragic death in 2015 devastated Longmuir, like so many others close to Walsh or in football. In a purely football sense, it left the question of what his brilliant mind could have achieved as a senior coach.  

One clue might be in the legacy the 55-year-old left in modern coaches like Longmuir. 

"'Longy' is his own man, and he was always going to do it his way," Teague said.

"But that work ethic and desire to learn and grow is a trait he shares with Phil. 

"Phil was an all-in type person, and he would be absolutely proud of the person and coach JL is. A lot of people who have worked with him are."