BACKLINE coach Jade Rawlings says continued improvement will be the theme throughout the NAB Challenge, with Melbourne’s first hit out of the season a positive start.

Although the Demons went down by 18 points to Fremantle at Fremantle Oval on Thursday, it was an encouraging display against a quality opposition. Rawlings said the side will only learn from the first-up hit-out for 2015.

“We thought for three of the four quarters we competed pretty hard and were able to put a lot of pressure on Fremantle,” he told Dee TV.

“Two of those quarters we were able to score and the other ones we messed up our opportunity to score in the wind.

“That second quarter was really poor and we just fumbled and got pressured into errors by Fremantle. The most pleasing thing was that there was a response from the playing group and in the second half we were in a position to win.

“The start of the last quarter, we couldn’t kick our goals and they got it down the other end and made the most of their chance. Overall, we thought the competitive side of things was really good … we just didn’t compete well in the second quarter.”

Rawlings said the coaching staff was encouraged by the club’s recruits.

“[Aaron] vandenBerg came on in the second half and really showed what he was doing out there and he was able to play the role we were after,” he said.

“Sam Frost, when he went back, was quite good and Newton was going ok in the first quarter before he got hurt. Jeff Garlett was exciting when he was around the ball and it looked like things were going to happen. Those new players all probably had a small patch of the game where they would’ve been quite pleased with what they did.”

Overall, Rawlings said it was a genuine test first up, but there was plenty to take into next round’s NAB Challenge clash against the Western Bulldogs at Ballarat.

“My gut feel was that it was pretty challenging [in the] conditions against a good opposition,” he said.

“For our guys it was very important to demonstrate the capacity to compete really hard – but not just compete, but have moments where we were the better team on the ground for patches.

“I think the playing group will learn a lot out of this first hit out and it’s an ongoing process of continued improvement and hopefully we can better off in the game against the Bulldogs in Ballarat.”