Fremantle's AFL season is in tatters and the club's board should brace itself for a fiery backlash after the Dockers lost to the Kangaroos by 22 points at Subiaco Oval.

At the start of the year, Fremantle labelled the finals an absolute minimum and the top four attainable after an off-season recruiting campaign that yielded Josh Carr, Heath Black and Jarrad Schofield.

Following the 8.18 (66) to 6.8 (44) loss to the Kangaroos, the Dockers have slumped to 5-8 and at the mid-season break can almost start contemplating 2006.

Last year's ninth-placed finish was viewed as an aberration by the Fremantle board, which stunned most when it decided to reward coach Chris Connolly with a contract extension until the end of 2007.

Connolly himself has consistently backed his underperforming players and echoed the club's mantra that the faith would be justified in time.

He appeared to be trying to instil some discipline when he suspended Graham Polak and Steven Dodd last week for breaking team rules on drinking.

But on-field the team is simply failing to fire and the effort - in front of 33,550 fans - will test the patience of the most ardent supporter.

Bereft of form or confidence, the Dockers are now likely to need to win six of their final nine games to reach the finals.

The Kangaroos were far from inspiring, but were still too strong for Fremantle and find themselves well placed at 8-5.

Peter Bell played almost a lone hand in his 100th match for Fremantle and Dodd toiled hard, but no other Docker was worthy of note.

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