Fremantle coach Mark Harvey was all too aware his side got out of jail against a fast-finishing Melbourne in an 11-point result at Subiaco on Sunday afternoon.
Down by 44 points late in the second quarter and with just two goals to their name, there appeared little hope for the Demons against a Fremantle side that was working the zone nicely, preventing Melbourne from running the ball in any way, shape or form.
But a late goal before half-time and some choice words from coach Dean Bailey saw Melbourne re-discover its mojo after the break as the Demons strung together seven unanswered goals to trail by just one point 17 minutes into the third term.
In an intense finale to the game, there was less than a goal in it for much of the final quarter as both sides struggled to land a killer blow, Fremantle kicking six behinds to Melbourne's three.
But with 2:15 left on the clock, Hayden Ballantyne produced a composed finish on his non-preferred foot from a tight angle to seal the result with his fourth goal of the match.
"It's disturbing that you can let an opposition have that sort of an effect in a quarter," Harvey said.
"That's something we need to address because we won't get away with that with sides that are dominating the competition at the moment."
"I mean Melbourne's emerging and in time we will be talking about Melbourne in a different light."
"(But) that was the issue with us, we let them, in our backyard, we allowed them to get back into the game too quickly and too easily."
Despite the Dockers kicking six goals in the first term, Harvey was concerned when they failed to take their chances in a second quarter that still yielded three goals, all of them to Ballantyne.
"We had control of the game in many facets but once again some inaccuracy and our ability not to be able to extend the lead when we should of, even though we were up by a significant margin, we should have been up by more," Harvey said.
"It just gives an opposition a glimmer of hope because you don't do that and we need to make sure that once we're on top of an opposition that we take our chances a lot better than we did today."
The villain of the show in last week's 19-point loss to Richmond after he gave away a vital goal through an interchange error, Ballantyne showed his mental toughness by playing a role in every one of the Dockers' goals after quarter time, the forward booting four and ensuring a major to Ryan Crowley was shepherded over the line.
"After last week, he's a dynamic little player and perhaps we should have a look at him, the type of player he is rather than look at the other things that he possibly does throughout the course of the game," Harvey said.
"There's always moments in games when you have to take that shot on goal, sometimes some players are up to it, some aren't."
"Hayden's one of those guys that obviously takes a lot of punts when he plays, so it's indicative of the guy early in his career that he can do that."