Fremantle may have slipped out of the top four for the first time in more than three months but coach Mark Harvey is far from worried.
The Dockers' 82-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Sunday meant the Western Bulldogs leapfrogged Fremantle into fourth spot giving the NAB Cup winners the opportunity of securing the double chance come September.
In contrast Fremantle - which prior to Sunday's humiliating loss had not been beaten by more than six goals all season - is now facing the possibility of finishing either fifth or sixth and being thrust into a knockout final, albeit with home advantage in Perth, in the first week of September.
However Harvey admits his side had overachieved this season by managing to stay in the top four since Round 5 after getting off to a flying start to the season by winning six of its first seven matches.
"We have never said we were a top four side," Harvey said.
"Whilst you can look at the ladder and (see the Dockers in the top four for most of the season) have that opinion, we have never seen it that way."
"We just happen to have made the most of the season so far and we are playing every game on its merits and we have never treated it any differently."
Harvey believes the Dockers will only improve on whatever they do in season 2010 regardless of how the team fares in September in what will be only the club's third finals campaign since joining the competition in 1995.
And he bases this on the inexperience of the current Fremantle side, a situation made worse by the club's recent high injury toll which meant that exactly half the side that played against the Bulldogs on Sunday were players either in their first or second AFL seasons.
"We have got a long way to go, absolutely of course we have," he said.
"When you play 11 first or second year players you are going to have your moments."
"I think we are a side that is emerging, that is all."
Even the Dockers' two best players in skipper Matthew Pavlich and giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands struggled against the Bulldogs on Sunday with Harvey admitting the pair were carrying a heavy physical burden at the moment as the Dockers continue to make do without experienced players such as Chris Tarrant, David Mundy, Kepler Bradley and Ryan Crowley due to injury and illness.
"I think this is an industry where we fail to see some of the good things players do away from how you guys (the media) read it, which is statistically," Harvey said in defending the efforts of Pavlich and Sandilands against the Bulldogs.
"Those two guys carry a lot of the physical load and they have been playing every game and between 80 and 100 percent of the game every week."
"So just maybe if we had some of our other best performers out there it may have made it a bit easier for them because some of our young players are making mistakes at this stage and that can make it difficult for everyone."
But the good news for the Dockers is they are expected to regain several key players for Sunday's western derby against West Coast with Bradley (knee), Mundy (illness), Tarrant (Achilles tendonitis) and Chris Mayne (ankle) all a chance to return although Crowley (knee) and Alex Silvagni (groin) are expected to miss another week.