Senior coach Justin Longmuir was disappointed by the final score in Fremantle's 27-point loss to Richmond at Metricon Stadium after they had gotten to within six points of the Tigers at three-quarter time.
Freo were unable to capitalise on their opportunities or their midfield dominance, where they won the clearances 38 to 19.
"Richmond scored pretty heavily in the last quarter but especially the second and third quarters, I think we should have made more of our opportunities," Longmuir said.
"The scoreboard probably shouldn't have looked like it did at three-quarter time. That's been an issue for us all year and especially the last six weeks.
"Even though we've had some good wins in that period I still think we haven't capitalised on our dominance and we didn't do that again tonight."
Longmuir said Fremantle continue to have an issue with moving the ball inside 50.
“Our connection going inside 50, sometimes we should be lowering our eyes and looking for the lead and we kick it long and sometimes we should be going slow and we’re going fast,” Longmuir said.
“We haven’t quite got that craft forward of centre yet to be able to capitalise on the hard work, because we were dominant in the clearance.
“Sometimes when you move the ball in the wrong fashion going inside 50 against a team like Richmond, you can’t defend it going the other way and it comes back at you with interest. That was the main message to the players after the game.”
Longmuir said his players can only learn from going up against teams like the Tigers.
"We’ve got a lot of work to go. Some of our younger players tonight came up against a really high-pressure team and they will learn a lot from that," Longmuir said.
"They will understand that there is a level that you need to train at to be able to compete with the top teams.
"It's just that last piece of the puzzle is letting us down, but we will continue to work on it and get better at it and one day it will start clicking week in and week out. We will work on that connection and get that chemistry working and we'll be able to make the most of our good work."
Longmuir refuted any suggestions that Fremantle’s final quarter fade out had anything to do with their four-day break.
“I’m not going to give our players that out. I think Richmond went to another level and we stayed at a similar level and once we got on the back foot we couldn’t match it,” Longmuir said.
“We hung in there, but they just got on top in the contest and took their contest to another level that created a lot of opportunities for them forward of centre and they took them.”
