Fielding seven untried players and without the services of forwards Matthew Pavlich, Des Headland and Chris Tarrant, Fremantle had 300 AFL games less experience than the Tigers in their three point loss.
Under those circumstances giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands was philosophical about falling short of victory.
"It would have been nice to get across the line, but we're a totally different playing group to last year," Sandilands said.
"I don't think you can put it in perspective to [our results from] last year.
"It was a close game, we went down by three points, but a lot of positives came out of it."
Plenty of positives indeed. High profile recruit Stephen Hill and rookies Matt De Boer, Greg Broughton and Clancee Pearce were all stand outs in their first game for Fremantle.
Hill, the No.3 pick overall in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft, led his side for tackles (eight) and inside 50s (five) and tied the scores late in the game with a superb super goal.
Sandilands said the senior players were not surprised to see their new teammates holding their own at AFL level against the highly-fancied Tigers.
"They look like they can play that intensity and showed some really good signs. The playing group and the coaches are really happy with how they're coming along," he said.
"They've definitely been training well and all the young boys have been stepping up. It's showing a bit, that's why they played last night."
The 211cm-ruckman said a third-quarter blitz from Richmond in Sunday's thriller when they went on to kick seven unanswered goals would also have taught the club's youngsters some valuable lessons.
"They made the most of the momentum at the start of the third quarter and showed the standard of AFL," Sandilands said.
"What the young boys learned is that's the intensity you've got to be at (for four quarters).
"The more games we play the better we're going to be and we're really looking forward to round one.
"A lot of positives have come out of it and I think the young guys are going to get confidence out of [the loss] anyway."
Sandilands added that Fremantle experimented with its midfield during Sunday's clash and continued to work on being more effective in the centre square.
The giant ruckman had 35 hit-outs to Richmond's combined 30 for the match.
