Ryan Crowley won’t be there, but Fremantle are unlikely to afford Geelong wizard Steve Johnson much freedom on Sunday.

Johnson’s battles with Crowley have been an intriguing and oft-heated subplot of the Cats’ recent rivalry with the Dockers.

Crowley’s doping matter means Johnson won’t be tagged by his long-time antagonist.

The Cats fully expect the close checking of Johnson to continue, with assistant coach Blake Caracella saying it was up to the 31-year-old to rise above it.

“It’s something he has had to grow up with throughout his whole career,” Caracella said.

“He gets a fair bit of attention every week. Most good players get a lot of attention and you have to deal with it.

“In the past Johnno has let it get to him a little bit.

“Hopefully at this stage of his career he can move past it.

“Johnno’s a fantastic player and if he’s playing well for us, then it’ll go a fair way to us winning.”

Johnson was fined for lashing out at Sam Mitchell in round one, with coach Chris Scott admitting the habit was something the club needed to “fix”.

Crowley has been passing on tips to protege Clancee Pearce, who was asked to curb the influence of Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak in round one.

Dockers coach Ross Lyon gave little away when asked what was in store for Pearce at Simonds Stadium.

“He’s a good chance to (be sent to someone),” Lyon said in Perth.

“But what we learned last week … is that we don’t always have to play a tagger, all the time.

“Boak had 10 possessions in the last quarter, but our team and our team pressure handled that.”

The past two contests between the two sides in Geelong have been classics.

Fremantle recorded a memorable 15-point win over the Cats in week one of the 2013 finals, while David Mundy missed a shot after the siren last year when the hosts hung on by two points.

Caracella expected more of the same on Sunday, when his charges will look to bounce back after starting their season with a 62-point loss to reigning premiers Hawthorn.

“It’s going to be a fantastic game,” he said.

“We need to bounce back.

“We’ve spoken about a few things we can do better. They kicked 123 points, it’s not the way we want to play.”