Sydney Swans defender Ted Richards was pleased to be able to get important game time against Fremantle on Sunday in his first match of the 2015 pre-season.

Richards, who was returning after a pre-season hampered by a hamstring injury kept Fremantle star Matthew Pavlich goalless with the Fremantle captain collecting just five disposals.

The veteran defender said he was pleased to be able to get game time in a competitive setting against the Dockers.

“I was pretty nervous before the game because it was my first game for the year after missing the intra club and the first NAB challenge game,” Richards told SwansTV.

“It was always going to be a challenge for me coming into this game and lining up on Pavlich who is one of the guns of the competition.”

“I am really happy I was able to play the three quarters and will be looking to play a full game next week.”

Richards said the team was focussed on taking momentum of a strong pre-season campaign into the beginning of the home and away season.

“We were really disappointed with how we played last week and we addressed the fact that we were disappointed with how we started (the season) last year,” Richards said.

“We really want to start to go into the season proper with some momentum and so it was good to be back today (Sunday).”

“We were pretty annoyed with ourselves last week (against Brisbane) and I think tackles, hard ball gets and loose ball gets were all up today so that is a real positive.”

Richards, Lance Franklin and Adam Goodes all took part in limited game time during the win over the Dockers as an important part of their training regime.

Captain Jarrad McVeigh is also a chance to join his teammates in a near full strength side to take on GWS in Canberra on Sunday afternoon.