They are currently sitting equal first and are one of four sides to have only lost the one match. Their sole loss was a narrow one against last year’s Grand Finalists St Kilda in Melbourne - who also sit in the top four - in what many have described at the ‘match of the year’.
The Dockers have already knocked over reigning premiers Geelong this year and will be chock full of confidence heading into our match this week.
They seem to have a disciplined game plan and generate plenty of run both across half back and through the midfield.
It will be interesting because that’s probably what we have been lacking over the last couple of weeks.
It’s important that we learn from our past two losses - against Melbourne and Sydney - and get back to playing the sort of footy that we did in the first month of the year.
Fortunately we’ll be back home at the Gabba, but that won’t count for much unless we stick to our game plan.
Aaron Sandilands is one of the keys to the Dockers’ side because of his dominance in the ruck and around stoppages. He’s around 10cm taller than either of our ruckman and will more than likely get his hands to the ball first in the ruck contests. It’s little surprise that he has around 50 more hitouts than anyone else in the competition.
So it’s fair to say that Mitch Clark and Matthew Leuenberger will have their hands full this week.
Dockers Captain Matthew Pavlich is one of their other main weapons. He has the rare ability to play as a running midfielder, but also shift forward and be Fremantle’s key target in attack.
In fact, Pav leads the Coleman Medal race together with Browny after six rounds with 24 goals.
But we can’t just focus on those two guys because the Dockers are a really even side across the board and can hurt teams that don’t pay the necessary respect to their quality ball winners.
Personally, the quad has healed up well and I am feeling fit and well after playing with the Reserves against the Western Magpies last weekend.
Fortunately the injury was on my non-kicking leg which means the recovery process has been a bit smoother.
I’ll definitely be putting my hand up for senior selection, but the decision on whether I play or not will rest with the Match Committee who will probably get together at some stage tomorrow to discuss this week’s team.
