Essendon managed just two goals in the first half and fell 59 points behind mid-way through the third quarter, but the Bombers got back to within 22 points in the final term and Hird was happy with the effort shown.
With Michael Hurley and Jobe Watson successfully returning from injury, the coach was buoyant about remaining in the top eight if the Bombers can replicate the form they displayed late in the game.
""We really lost it in that first quarter and the psychology of football is that we have to work out why we started like that, but I think Fremantle were better for more of the game than we were,"" Hird said.
""We had a good patch in the last quarter, but it was a disappointing effort overall.""
""We lost our structure a couple of times, which was disappointing, because we have talked about that. They certainly dictated to our players where they went, which was disappointing as well. Structurally the first quarter was very disappointing and we didn't start the way we should have,"" he said.
For the third successive week Essendon had more entries inside-50 (50-45) and clearances (39-36) than its opposition, but again it lost.
""The positive thing out of the last 40 minutes was that we used the ball a lot better into our forward 50 and actually started to look dangerous going into the forward line again, which we haven't for the last few weeks,"" Hird said.
""Our last 40 minutes of football was very good and that's a positive because we've sort of come out of a form slump. We'd like to think we're back playing the sort of football we want to play. Hopefully that will keep going in the next week against North Melbourne.""
Veteran defender Dustin Fletcher went down in the second quarter with a cork to his quad and didn't return, but Hird is confident he will face the Kangaroos next week, as should Brent Stanton who was a late withdrawal with a shoulder complaint.
""He's (Fletcher) got a cork on his quad and we will be confident he'll come up. They normally come up in five or six days and we'll be confident that he'll play. It's disappointing when you get bad corks and you just can't move too well,"" Hird said.
""Stants had a sore shoulder. He's had one for four or five weeks and we just needed to get it right. I think he'll be right for next week. We trained yesterday and we just decided that he wasn't quite right,"" he said.
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