Waalitj Marawar arrived in Melbourne ahead of last weekend’s clash with Essendon at Windy Hill, and will remain interstate until Saturday, returning home after their round three matchup with St Kilda.

Living a some-what ‘hub’ lifestyle this week, senior coach Daisy Pearce is embracing the unique opportunity for the team to further their bonding and connections.

“We’ve got St Kilda on Saturday, a six-day break into St Kilda,” Pearce said.

“We travel every second week and it’s a long trip, so opportunities like this where we keep the squad in town and use the unique opportunity of being able to spend some time together, have that connection piece, we’re really grateful that the club supports us to do it.

“It’s unique and it gives us a bit of an advantage to embrace what is an abnormal week and take the benefits of it.”

Waalitj Marawar suffered heartbreak in round two, falling to Essendon by five points in the dying seconds of the game, but Pearce said there were plenty of positives to take away from the game.

“They’re really disappointed, we go into every game believing we can win, and they did so much right,” Pearce said.

“We were please with the way they were able to be physical and hold up around the ball, against a team who has that as their real strength, so it shows great progress in that part of the game for us.

“Overall, there will be some real positives to come out of it, just disappointing in the end.”

Second-gamer Kayla Dalgleish starred against the Bombers with two goals, her work rate and professionalism earning the praises from Pearce.

“Kayla Dalgleish has been outstanding, she’s really impressed us with her footy IQ, her work rate and her competitiveness,” Pearce said.

“Just her capacity as a first-year player to be able to come in settle into the environment, do the amount of work that she’s done and see her get some reward was really pleasing.

“She had an outstanding game last week in terms of work rate, and this week she was able to bring a bit more composure and her skill level to the game, which is a really good sign for her.”

Elite defender Beth Schilling was unfortunately ruled out for the season last week after suffering a foot injury in round one, but Pearce said the backline is learning to adapt in Schilling’s absence.

“It’s been great to see Roxy (Roux) embrace that role, and again this week I think she was reliable and had some good moments,” Pearce said.

“Our backs held us together for the first half and had some really strong moments as a collective, and the late, they will be disappointed, we got a bit disorganised at the end there.

“It would have been nice to have ‘Schillo’ out there as she is one of our key pillars, but I thought they held up pretty well across the board, and Roxy was part of that.”