FREMANTLE coach Mark Harvey has praised his young side's will to win following a thrilling five-point western derby Bushfire Appeal victory over West Coast on Saturday night.

After often falling short in close matches through 2008, Fremantle was able to turn that form around and steal the NAB Challenge honours from West Coast, 17.9 (111) to 16.10 (106).

Five recent draftees ran out for Fremantle in their second-last hit-out of the pre-season. But, with the side losing l0 games by less than 15 points last season, Harvey had an extra reason to savour the win.

"What you like to see is the resolve among the playing group to want to come from behind and win a close game," he said after the match.

"We haven't been able to do that over the last 12 months. When you've got a young group like we had tonight…it's good to see them react that way.

"From a confidence point of view for the group going forward it's terrific.

"We're going to have our ebbs and flows but the will to win is what you look at tonight.

"If you want to create a winning obsession, that's what you look for."

Draft picks Nick Suban, Stephen Hill, Zac Clarke and Michael Walters and rookie Greg Broughton all held their own against a similarly inexperienced West Coast side.

Luke McPharlin, Paul Hasleby, Des Headland, Garrick Ibbotson, Dean Solomon and Chris Mayne all missed the hit-out, but Harvey indicated he would field a side closer to full strength in the last NAB Challenge fixture against Carlton in Bunbury next week.

A relatively uneventful first three quarters were followed by a thrilling finale in which 15 goals were kicked.

Down by 25 points 26 minutes into the final quarter, Fremantle stormed home with the last five goals of the game, three booted by Ryan Crowley.

Harvey said he experimented in the final stanza and was glad his side responded so emphatically.

"We changed a few things, it's fair to say. We changed a few things and we tried a couple of different things throughout the course of the game that actually worked for us," he said.

"Going forward, it's good that, tactically, your group can take a hold of that as well.

"It was more the whole last quarter that we changed up a fair bit."

As well as his first-year players, Harvey singled out Daniel Gilmore, who played on the last line of defence, for praise.

After playing just a half, he said skipper Matthew Pavlich will return next week for close to a full match.