Senior AFLW coach Trent Cooper feels a lot can come from falling short against the AFLW’s best after a 17-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday at David Grays Arena.

Cooper feels Freo can learn a lot from the reigning premiers and he felt optimistic that outside of a dominant six-goal second quarter from Adelaide, Fremantle were able to match their opponents by winning the remaining quarters.

“The game was probably exactly what we needed, we knew playing Adelaide, they would expose any weaknesses in our game and they did that in the first half,” Cooper said.

“I was really impressed with how the girls re-grouped and finished the second half of the game strongly.”

Cooper said that Freo were caught out by letting Adelaide play in their trademark style in the second term.

“We spoke about how they’d score and it was disappointing to let them score in the way we had identified,” Cooper said.

“It’s a big part of our learning for the backs, which is an inexperienced group.

“They have shown they learn pretty quickly so that hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. We’ll also need our mids to control things a bit better when things aren’t going our way.”

After trailing by five goals at the main break, Fremantle rebounded and outscored Adelaide by three goals to one in the second half.

While the Crows made the most of their opportunities in the second term, Freo were unable to capitalise when they had the ascendency.

“We probably dominated the third quarter but just didn’t score,’ Cooper said.

“There was only one goal for that quarter. We had plenty of opportunities but didn’t quite score but the second half was good overall.

“Kiara Bowers played in the second half which made a big difference in that inside mid role, so we finished the game really strongly.”

Cooper highlighted a number of strong performances from Freo’s younger players, with a handful a chance to debut in round one.

This includes draftee defender Janelle Cuthbertson and ruck Mim Strom.

“Janelle is really competitive, quick strong and tall. She’s everything you want in a defender,” Cooper said.

“She hasn’t got much experience with only five reserves games at WAFLW level, but she looks like she is going to be a very good player for us.

“Mim did an exceptional job, we are really excited about her as a long term player. She stepped up straight away and she will be out there round one.”

Cooper said that Freo are keeping their fingers crossed for Irish ruck recruit Aine Tighe, who injured her knee in the third term.

“It doesn’t look great at this stage but we will get some scans next week on her left knee,” Cooper said.

“At this stage we have our fingers crossed, that she is okay but if not we will have our full support behind her.

“She is such an exciting player and has done everything right for the club so far.”

Freo’s first round clash is against Geelong on Sunday 9 February at Fremantle Oval.