Senior coach Michael Prior will be looking for a four-quarter effort from West Coast’s AFLW team against Gold Coast in the wake of last night’s disappointing RAC Derby loss to Fremantle.

After a tug-of-war in the first three quarters, it was the Dockers who eventually defeated West Coast (6.7) 43 to (2.3) 15 at home, after slotting three successive goals in the final term.

While the Eagles managed to narrow the deficit to five points at three-quarter time, it wasn’t enough to stop the Fremantle barrage in the final moments of the match, something which Prior is looking to rectify in coming weeks.

“I just said to the girls in the room, any game of football you play, it tells you a story, and the story that it told us, we weren’t good enough early in the game,” Prior said.

“I thought we came out after half-time and really had a go at that third quarter, then fell away again in that last quarter.

“But we can’t wait until after half-time for our effort and intensity to lift like it did.

“I mentioned to the girls in the rooms after the game that a quarter of footy, or two quarters of footy doesn’t get it done.

“We’re in a pretty competitive AFLW environment and we need to be able to bring that effort for four quarters.

“So, we thought we need to improve in that area moving forward, quicker than we did.”

Game plan and further football knowledge will also be on the agenda in coming weeks, after structures fell away during specific points in the match, according to Prior.

 “The first thing in a game of footy, if the effort’s there, then a lot of other things come along with that, with your game plan and your structures,” he said.

“Our structures fell away a bit as well, what we’ve been training for the six months, in the first half particularly, they sort of disappeared a little bit, which was disappointing.

“Maybe it’s the first game, with full game intensity that we’ve played, we only get to play one scratch match before that, so maybe it’s the pressure of the game.

“We need to be conscious of that, the pressure’s there, they have to be thinking their way through scenarios.

“So round one, maybe that got to us, but we hope round two and beyond that we’ll be a lot better.”