Essendon will hope AFLW captain Bonnie Toogood has avoided a serious knee injury after a sickening collision with teammate Amber Clarke in the Bombers' 43-point opening-round loss to Fremantle.
Clarke was concussed but cleared of a neck injury, while Toogood will have scans after suffering a "heavy knock" to her knee in the incident that marred Saturday's 10.4 (64) to 3.3 (21) defeat in front of 2820 fans at Windy Hill.
Key forward Toogood was steaming forward to take a mark inside 50 when she collected teammate Clarke, who had run into her path seemingly completely unawares, in the second quarter.
The pair clashed heads, then Clarke's head bounced on the ground when she landed.
Clarke was taken from the field on a stretcher.
With her day over, star goalkicker Toogood was visibly distraught on the sidelines. She was cleared of concussion and returned to sit on the bench to watch on with ice on her right knee.
"We'll get it scanned and see," coach Natalie Wood said.
"Obviously she's pretty upset, mostly from being a really important leader for us and she wanted to be out there making her contributions and trying to help us put our best foot forward."
Essendon led by eight points at the time - after Daria Bannister kicked the opening goal on return from an ACL tear - but were rattled by the incident.
Electric Fremantle took full advantage, reeling off four unanswered goals to take control.
"Those moments, they're big. We heard that from the sidelines and that jolts everyone and I think it did jolt us," Wood said.
"To the group's credit though we really fought through, right down to the end. Like that last quarter, down by six goals and we were still trying to move the ball how we wanted to move it.
"It not only rattled us a little bit but it threw out our rotations - you lose two forwards ... that part caught us off guard as well."
Bannister kicked her second goal to cut Fremantle's lead to 12 at halftime.
Lisa Webb's Dockers also led by 12 at three-quarter time and nabbed five unanswered goals in the final term to deliver a superb thrashing on the road.
"With a minute 30 (seconds) to go, they were just ruthless and it's something that we pride ourselves on, consistency over four quarters," Webb said.
"We've still got a lot to improve on but it was a pleasing start."
Fremantle's "incredible" Irish recruit Aish McCarthy, who crossed from West Coast over the off-season, was dominant, racking up 23 disposals and kicking two goals, while Aine Tighe finished with four majors.
Hayley Miller (17 disposals), who was demoted from skipper to vice-captain in favour of the injured Ange Stannett in pre-season, was busy while defensive recruit Ash Brazill was influential.
Essendon midfielder Georgia Nanscawen (25 disposals, 11 clearances) was prolific, along with recruit Maddison Gay and on-baller Madison Prespakis (25 touches, seven clearances).
