Fifth plays ninth on Saturday night when the Dockers host Hawthorn in Perth, a finals-like clash that could go a long way to determining the makeup of the top eight with seven weeks left to play.
Despite winning six games in a row prior, Fremantle’s 11-point loss to the Swans last week highlighted more problem areas for Dockers coach Justin Longmuir, starting with the hard tag applied on superstar midfielder Caleb Serong.
The 24-year-old was held to 11 touches after Sydney's James Jordon did a job on him from start to finish, while a similar story played out the week prior in Freo’s win over St Kilda.
Starting with this week’s game against the Hawks, the Dockers prepare for a tough run home with Collingwood, the Brisbane Lions and the Western Bulldogs still ahead, and it goes without saying that they need Serong seeing plenty of the footy in the leadup to September.
MORE: AFL champion slams Fremantle, questions top eight potential
Yeah, its something that we haven't done well, particularly over the last couple of weeks,” Serong’s teammate Jaeger O’Meara told SEN on Thursday.
“Opposition teams are coming harder at Caleb and Andy (Brayshaw) at times this year, and we have done that well throughout the season, but I think the last couple weeks we’ve probably let Caleb down a little bit.”
O’Meara has been a welcome return to Fremantle’s midfield after struggling to find the field over the last two years through injury. He returned last week in a limited role as the club continues to manage his minutes around fitness concerns.
“They are clearly going after him. He’s an absolute weapon, he’s been a beacon of consistency for us since my time at the footy club,” O’Meara added.
“So, we need to look to support him more, particularly around stoppage and we need to try to manipulate that tag as well and see what we can do there and try and explore something different too.”
Finn Maginnes, who starred in the VFL last week, is considered one of Hawthorn’s best taggers, but the Dockers will have a fight on their hands in many ways through the middle of the ground with Jai Newcombe averaging nearly 24 touches a game.