Walyalup coach Lisa Webb says competitive not good enough for Dockers as she eyes premiership points

Walyalup (Fremantle) coach Lisa Webb says the Dockers need to get back to their brand of football as she eyes a derby turnaround for an AFLW season in freefall.

The Dockers showed improved effort against Sydney, particularly in the first half, where their forward-half pressure stymied the Swans’ effort to move the ball freely.

However, Walyalup couldn’t make the most of their opportunities with Sydney effectively ending what was an arm wrestle with a four-goal 10-minute burst in the third quarter of the 9.8 (62) to 5.7 (37) loss.

“That really hurt us, those four goals,” Webb said post-match

“We tried to change some things around, but obviously, we couldn’t get on top.

“But there were some positives. The last couple of weeks have been tough. We came out with a strong plan, but we just couldn’t execute in crucial moments of the game.”

It sees the Dockers fall to 1-3 to start their season, with their finals hopes already hanging by a thread, but Webb has belief her side can turn it around.

“I have no doubt in my mind they’ll get up again but it’s a bit of a line-in-the-sand moment for us,” Webb said.

“We’re far better than what we’ve been playing, as much as it’s competitive, we’re not here to give away four points; we just have to get on the winners’ list as soon as possible.

“We’ve got some challenging opponents that we’ve played and are coming up, and we need to make a real statement this week.

“We need to get back to the football we know.”

The Dockers dominated large portions of the game, generating more inside 50s and enjoying more time in their attacking half. However, they struggled to make it count, taking just one mark inside 50 for the game.

“At times it worked, at times it didn’t,” Webb said.

“We lacked polish just running over ground, some missed tackles, we gave away 10 free kicks to high tackles so that’s something we need to work on, the intent is there, but we can’t be giving away that many free kicks.”

Webb also conceded the Dockers were getting sucked into congestion too often, saying they were too predictable in their movement.

“Our inside-out work hasn’t been terrific,” she said.

“We’ve got some great ball hunters. We need to use our outside runners to get those uncontested chains going and force teams to defend us a little better.”