Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands hopes the club’s extended break between games will help them fix last week’s stoppage woes.
The Dockers dominated the hit-outs 75-23 but still lost the clearance battle 39-38 in their five-point win over Carlton last Thursday.
Blues midfielder Chris Judd was particularly damaging, with the two-time Brownlow medallist winning a glut of centre clearances in the opening half to give his side crucial momentum.
Fremantle’s premiership credentials have been questioned in recent weeks following lacklustre displays against St Kilda and Carlton.
The Dockers’ top-two hopes will be put to the test on Saturday night when they take on Geelong at Simonds Stadium.
Sandilands said the nine-day break between games had allowed the Dockers to fine tune several areas of concern, including the crucial stoppages.
“You only have to be off by a small percentage for it to not go your way,” Sandilands said on Tuesday.
“We’ve reviewed it, gone through it and it’s all about training for it now and getting it right.
“We put some things in place and we were able to practise that today … and hopefully we can turn that around this weekend.
“The last couple of weeks we haven’t been anywhere near our best, and the best way to turn it around is on the training track.”
Dockers utility Tendai Mzungu will miss the match against Geelong due to a hamstring injury, while skipper Matthew Pavlich (concussion) is also in doubt.
Geelong are sweating on the availability of mercurial midfielder Steve Johnson, who will front the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night to fight his one-match ban for kneeing North Melbourne’s Scott Thompson.
Johnson will be banned for two games if he fails to have the suspension overturned.
Sandilands missed the first 14 rounds of last season due to a torn hamstring.
But the 31-year-old has put any concerns over his fitness to rest this year, starring in his 17 games for the Dockers.
Sandilands will play on next year, and said his body was feeling fresh heading into the business end of the season.
