IT might not have been the breakthrough win his side needed, but Fremantle AFL Women’s coach Trent Cooper could “definitely” see the progression the Dockers have made over the past fortnight following their draw with Carlton. After narrowly falling to the Western Bulldogs by three points last week, the Dockers lead by 18 points at half-time and then 13 points at the final break with the Blues down two players. Despite being unable to capitalise on the opposition’s lack of rotations, Cooper admitted he could tell the players had taken another step forward.

“We were obviously really poor here two weeks ago and last week was a bit step forward and we probably just didn’t connect forward and today we did do that,” Cooper said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, a lot of areas to improve on, but definitely some positivity around.”

Cooper went into the game assigning ex-Crow Nikki Gore with the job on containing contested ball-winner Abbie McKay, but then “flicked” Gore onto Mimi Hill who was getting off the chain. That only lead to McKay stepping back up, but Cooper conceded his side was too reactive to an extra number inside the defensive 50 and unable to keep the momentum flowing later in the game.

“They put a spare behind the ball at the start of the second quarter and I thought we had a bit of ball early but didn’t navigate that particularly well which gave them a bit of the control,” Cooper said. “Then we just had one unfortunate defensive slip back of the game they got their tail up and pushed hard a little lack of belief in our girls as well not having a result so far. Then we were on the back foot rather than attacking like we had up until that point.”

That lack of belief has stemmed from an injury-stricken Dockers outfit missing a host of top players. Though Fremantle did regain talented forward Gabby O’Sullivan in the match, the Dockers copped another injury with first-year player Madeleine Scanlon hurting her wrist. Though the feeling after the game was a collective ‘what if?’ Cooper said the team would be able to move forward quickly ahead of their quick turnaround to Round 5.

“I said to all of them when there’s a draw, I said every player and every coach ‘what will I have done to change that result?’ so that’s just a natural feeling,” he said. “We said that’s just sport, there will be people at both ends of the ground and the coaching staff as well. So that feelings probably won’t help us so we said we’ve just got to park them and push forward. We’ve only got a five-day break now so that’s a really good thing, that we have to get going as well.”

One player who continues to stand up despite the results is mature-age draftee Megan Kauffman, who collected 14 disposals, two marks, two clearances, seven tackles and a goal, whilst gaining 290 metres for her side. Despite coming from a tennis background, Cooper said it was “frightening” to think just how good she could be if the Dockers could start to click back into their gear that they have become famous for over the past few seasons.

“It’s (Kauffman’s development) been phenomenal,” he said. “It’d be frightening to know what she could do if we played our brand of footy as well. She’s one of the ones leading the way and as a player with her inexperience, she should just be that just playing a role, but she’s having to do that and I think she was outstanding today in everything she did and in that last contest where she came charging in sort of sets the way that she goes about her game.”

Staring down the barrel of a season on the ropes with a draw and three losses in a 10-game season, Cooper was asked about the ‘F’ word and whether or not his side was still in the running.

“Yeah to be honest after the Geelong game we sort of really weren’t thinking about them too much,” he said. “If we’re going to challenge we want to be in a position to win a premiership and I think it’s fair to say at this stage we’re not playing at that level so if we sneak into the eight or not it’s sort of a bit by the by. We want to get back playing our really good footy. With that, things will maybe look after themselves, maybe we’re too far back already but it’s not a real focus for us at all at this stage.”

Fremantle do not have to wait long to try and collect its first win, coming up against West Coast in the Derby at Optus Stadium on Thursday. The match kicks off from 3:10pm local time, and signals the purple army’s best chance to taste victory with premiership contenders Melbourne, Adelaide and Collingwood in the three weeks following that match.