Fremantle Dockers AFLW coach Lisa Webb says emerging star Zippy Fish ‘the type of player we want’

Fremantle have been framed as the frontrunners to secure Zippy Fish in the coming off-season, but their coach Lisa Webb says she is personally yet to speak with the emerging AFLW star.

Last season’s Rising Star winner, who is a product of East Fremantle and the Dockers’ Next Generation Academy, is entering the final year of the contract she signed with Sydney after being chosen with pick No.5 in the 2024 draft.

Speculation has swirled over the rebounding half-back’s future in recent months and reached fever pitch on Monday, when Channel Seven’s Tom Morris reported the 20-year-old was “homesick” and Fremantle were the “clear frontrunners” in the chase for her signature.

Webb said she would be open to having a conversation with Fish, who she described as a “nice kid”, but said her own focus was firmly on the players she currently had at her disposal for the moment.

“We leave that up to list management,” Webb said.

“She’s a terrific young player, clearly . . . with high character and high talent. She’s certainly the type of player we want, (in terms of) people around this club.

“If we can get a player of her calibre, fantastic, but it’s not my area at the moment.

“We’re in a really important part of our season, three games left in the home and away season and we really want to be in finals, so that’s our biggest focus at the moment.”

Fremantle slipped down to ninth on the back of a 28-point loss to ladder-leaders North Melbourne on Sunday and sit one win adrift of eighth-placed Hawthorn.

This Sunday, they will confront what shapes as an easier challenge in last-placed St Kilda — but they are fresh off securing their first win of the season at the weekend in a game which was under-pressure coach Nick Dal Santo’s last in charge.

Webb said the way her side would go about preparing to take on the Saints would not change.

“They’re as desperate as we are to keep improving, new coach or not,” she said.

“They’ve got great players all over the ground — Jesse Wardlaw’s incredible, Serene Watson does a great job down back, Tyanna Smith, with the way she moves inside.

“We’re going to have to be at our absolute best.”