AFLW: Fremantle Dockers taught a lesson in wet weather footy as St Kilda take pre-season win

Fremantle AFLW coach Lisa Webb says her team must learn to adapt to conditions faster after they were held to just one goal in their pre-season loss to St Kilda.

In their final pre-season hit out, both sides battled through squally conditions with the Saints’ holding on for a 2.10 (22) to 1.9 (15) win at Victor George Kailis Oval on Saturday.

While both sides missed their scoring chances, Webb said the Saints were cleaner when it mattered, as her side failed to control the tempo early.

“It was a tough, contested game, which we expected St Kilda are really strong in that area,” Webb said.

“They got on top early, especially in the uncontested marks, and we didn’t get around to snap that quickly enough.

“They certainly played the conditions better than us, they were cleaner around the footy and their contested inside mids were really strong, which is something we have to work on.

“At times they were able to swing the momentum with their stoppage work and that’s something we want to learn from.”

Despite the defeat, Webb said there were still plenty of positives to take out of the game, especially in the performance of their backline and draftee Indi Strom.

“Our backline is always strong, they’re really well led down there, and Indi did really well out there playing on [Jesse] Wardlaw for a while and held up her end of the bargain,” she said.

“There’s so much talent there with our new players, and we just need to keep building, not the result we wanted today but it’s a good learning curve and something to focus on ahead of round one.”

Attention will now turn toward the season proper with Fremantle opening the season with a trip to Adelaide to face Port on August 17.