Michael Walters feels a young Fremantle group learnt some valuable lessons after falling six-points short in a thriller against Essendon at an empty Marvel Stadium on Saturday.

With the second-youngest list in the AFL, Walters said the team was susceptible to lapses, such as the one that led to the Bombers kicking the opening four goals of the game.

But the Fremantle leader added that such lapses are unacceptable, no matter the team’s age profile.

“I felt like we were just a little bit too reactive in our first quarter and second quarter,” Walters said.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but we have a young group and you’re going to do that, we just need our leaders and more experienced players to drive that.

“We reassessed at half time and I thought the boys came out with the right intent.

“If the ball was there to win, we were first in, which allowed us to fight back but we just can’t wait until half time to sit back and reassess, we need to do it on the go.”

Walters had praise for Brett Bewley’s ‘work-horse’ effort that saw him rack-up 20 disposals in the shortened format of 16-minute quarters.

He added that debutant Sam Sturt brings something special after the forward kicked three-goals in an exciting display.

“Sam’s a good player. He goes out there and plays on instinct,” Walters said.

“He’s not the biggest boy out there, but the way he moves around the field is a credit to him.

“He is smart and he’s quick. I thought he played real well today, but you just need to back it up and you have to recover well because footy is pretty taxying on your body, especially being a first or second year player.”

The club returns to WA to play Hawthorn at Optus Stadium next week, and Walters said he felt for the Freo members and supporters who will be unable to attend and have to watch from home.

“Stick with us, we tried our best out there,” Walters said.

“There’s no doubt we are going to front up, train hard this week and take that into Hawthorn next week as well.”