It’s been 248 days since Fremantle’s 2019 AFL Women’s campaign ended against Carlton in a preliminary final, so it was no surprise to see an excited and energetic Fremantle group take the field for their first official training session of the 2020 pre-season on Tuesday night.
While it has been a long off-season, Cooper feels Fremantle have enough time to prepare for round one in just over two months’ time against Geelong on 9 February 2020 at Fremantle Oval.
Most Fremantle players took part in the WAFLW season and have continued to work hard on their personal programs.
Cooper said that the high-fitness standard set by the group means Fremantle can focus on game play.
“The excitement is through the roof, the girls have been really keen for today to arrive and we’re all ready to go,” Cooper said.
“We’re into our football stage, the girls have presented really well from a fitness level, which is fantastic as it means we can concentrate on improving our football.
“That’s been really pleasing, that we can get out there and it looks like a short pre-season on paper but we think it’s long enough.
“The girls only get a seven-day break over Christmas so they won’t lose any momentum through that time and we can get ready to go for the first official game on 9 February against Geelong.”
After making their maiden finals series in 2019, Cooper said the team are hungry to improve again in 2020.
“It’s all about improvement for us. Last year we made really big steps forward but if we’re happy with that, we’ll go backwards,” Cooper said.
“We have to strive to improve in everything, our conditioning, our football, our footy knowledge - that’s our main focus for the pre-season, to keep improving and raising the bar.”
