Geelong have promised the return of their hard defensive edge as they seek to beat Fremantle at their own miserly game in Saturday night’s top-four AFL clash.

The Cats believe they’ve learned a valuable lesson from last round’s stunning fade-out against Brisbane.

Geelong conceded 10 goals from the 25-minute mark of the third quarter to give up a 52-point lead.

The Dockers, who eliminated the Cats from last year’s finals, haven’t conceded 10 goals in an entire match in the past month.

But while the Cats are more renowned for free scoring, midfielder Allen Christensen says they’re at their best when they have a defence-first attitude and that will be Saturday night’s focus.

“We don’t care if it’s four goals to three, we’ll go in with a really hard edge,” Christensen told AAP on Friday.

“We’ll tackle hard and hopefully stop them around the clearances because they’ve been really dangerous around there.

“We’ve just got to get back to playing hard Geelong defence footy.

“That’s what makes us a really good team.”

The Dockers have conceded a remarkable competition-best 66.6 points per game this season and just 43.5 per game in their past four.

Christensen acknowledged Fremantle are the AFL’s top defensive side.

“They’re just a really hard, pressing, right-up-in-your-face sort of team,” he said.

He added the Cats will have to choose carefully when to try to break through with fast ball movement and when to slow it down.

Geelong, by contrast, are equal 10th when it comes to scores conceded, giving up an average 91.7 points per game.

Christensen said they hadn’t been playing their best football for some time, which made Saturday night’s Simonds Stadium clash a perfect opportunity.

“To come up against Freo this week then Hawthorn next week, there’s no bigger test,” he said.

The Cats kept faith with the side that lost to the Lions, their only change replacing the suspended Steve Johnson with Josh Caddy.

The Dockers lost midfielder Michael Barlow (jaw), replaced by second-game 19-year-old Tom Sheridan.

It further robs Fremantle of clearance strength, with Barlow having led that statistic for them this season, ahead of David Mundy, who is also missing with a calf injury.

But Christensen said with the likes of Nathan Fyfe, Nick Suban and Ryan Crowley, the Dockers’ midfield remained strong.

“Hopefully we can outwork them. It doesn’t matter if we don’t break them until the last 10 minutes of the game, we’ll just keep chipping away,” he said.