Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has questioned his team’s toughness for the second time this season after they lost to previously winless Melbourne by 10 points at the MCG.

The Dockers entered the game chasing their fourth win in a row and were considered favourites against a Demons like up that was under intense pressure in 17th spot on the ladder.

But Melbourne controlled the game as Kysaiah Pickett booted five goals and Max Gawn dominated the ruck, to kick their highest score of the season and win 16.11 (107) to 14.13 (97).

The Demons won the contested possessions by 18 and dominated the middle of the ground, winning the centre clearances 20-11. They out tackled Fremantle 59-45 and that included 27 tackles inside 50 to the Dockers’ four.

Longmuir questioned his team’s toughness after being thrashed by Geelong in round one and he raised the same issue after the loss to Melbourne.

“I’m disappointed with the way we played. I didn’t think we were tough enough,” he said.

“I felt like we didn’t value the right things. We didn’t defend the front half the way we want to defend our front half. They had over 70 points at half-time. That’s not the team we want to be.

“You lose the contested ball. Some of that’s method. Some of that’s just grunt. To go down in the tackles as well – we didn’t put enough pressure on them after they won it. It was too easy. They were able to find their teammates, get to the outside of us. We didn’t handle that well.”

Longmuir said the lack of pressure being applied around the ground was dramatically different to last season and is something that desperately needs to be addressed. He declared the team hung the defenders out to dry.

Gawn’s performance against Sean Darcy and Oscar McDonald was crucial as he finished with 28 disposals,10 clearances and 31 hit outs. Darcy was playing only his second game of the year after an injury interrupted pre-season and Luke Jackson remains unavailable.

Longmuir said he would have to re-consider the decision to select only one specialist ruckman.

“We got taught a lesson in there,” he said.

“They scored heavily from centre bounce. Ultimately you could say that was the difference in the game. They kicked five goals, We kicked one and the difference was 10 points.”

Fremantle have injury concerns with Jaeger O’Meara facing scans on his hamstring ahead of Friday night’s game against Adelaide. Heath Chapman was a late withdrawal due to illness.

Longmuir said Chapman would have played on Pickett and said the team struggled to handle the star Demon playing two roles.

“He starts in the centre bounce and then flips forward,” he said.

“At times we got hat handover right. At times we saw that through the right way. At times we didn’t. A lot of his goals came from him winning contests or getting goal side of his opponent. He’s a good player obviously. We need to get better at handling those flips out of the midfield.”