Fremantle Forced To Send Non-selected AFLW Players To Adelaide For A Day After West Coast Turn Down Scrimmage Offer

According to ELIZA REILLY's report, the non-selected players from Fremantle spent less than a day in Adelaide over the weekend because West Coast declined an opportunity to play a practice match in Perth for an unusual reason.

After West Coast declined an opportunity to participate in a practice match in Perth, Fremantle was forced to dispatch a group of players who were not picked for the match to Adelaide for less than a day.

The fact that the AFLW season will now take place in the second half of the year has created a conundrum for the clubs who play in state leagues throughout the country, all of which will have finished their seasons before the national competition begins in September.

Because of this, AFLW teams do not have a place for players who have not been selected to participate in order to keep up their match fitness and make a case for senior selection.

As a workaround, teams have been holding informal exhibition matches against one another.

As a result, in round three, both the Fremantle and Carlton teams from Victoria traveled to Perth to take on a combined West Coast and Hawthorn squad.

CODE Sports has learned that while the Eagles were in New South Wales to play Greater Western Sydney in round six, there was talk of a scrimmage between Fremantle and West Coast being played in Perth on the following weekend. However, the West Coast declined the offer.

The Eagles reportedly complained about the proposed oval's size. The Dockers had planned to chalk out a smaller field on Fremantle Oval in order to accommodate the fewer players they had.

Instead, Fremantle sent its set of non-playing players to Adelaide when the Eagles bowed out of the practice match.

On Saturday morning, the team flew out and played a shortened match against the reserve teams from Adelaide and Port Adelaide before returning to Perth in the afternoon.

The AFL is rumored to have contributed to the cost of the quick jaunt.

After Fremantle's humbling loss to North Melbourne on Sunday, coach Lisa Webb said it was crucial to promote selection pressure.

After the game, Webb remarked, "We've had a lot of girls that are banging down the door, they obviously went and played in Adelaide yesterday so that's exciting for us."

"I know there were some good performances yesterday, so we'll certainly have to look at that," said a member of the coaching staff. "One thing that we've been really keen on is supporting our non-playing players to get games into them because we know that we're stronger together with that."

It has been reported that West Coast has played in only two preseason games thus far. Before round six, the Eagles had three players out with injuries.

Krstel Petrevski's season-ending ankle injury has forced him to sit out the rest of the year, while Emily Elkington (concussion) and Sarah Lakay (back) were classified as testing.

Sasha Goranova, a defender for the Eagles, suffered what appeared to be a major knee injury last week, putting the team's depth to the test this weekend.

After taking a hefty blow to the head, Zoe Wakfer had to take some time off the field, and GWS ruck Fleur Davies was punished for a sling tackle on Eagle Dana Hooker, causing the veteran's head to hit the turf. We've reached out to West Coast for their take.