Fremantle coach Mark Harvey admits his charges have some improving to do when they confront AFL side Melbourne at Subiaco Oval on Sunday.

When the teams last met in round seven, the Demons overcame a 51-point deficit to post a famous six-point win - all but ending the Dockers' finals aspirations in the process.

"It's an interesting game on the back of what happened during the (last) game," Harvey said.

"I think we've learned a lot from last time we played Melbourne.

"There's some areas we need to focus on and both sides are depleted from an injury aspect, hence we've found ourselves in this situation where we're not playing a finals scenario at the end of the year."

West Coast, Melbourne and Fremantle enter round 16 anchored to the bottom of the table with just two wins apiece, meaning a win this weekend would go a long way to avoiding the dreaded wooden spoon.

The Demons have made one change to the team that lost to the Western Bulldogs last week with Aaron Davey replacing the injured Brad Green (hamstring).

Fremantle have made three changes to the side that copped a 74-point smashing at the hands of Geelong, with Shaun McManus, Brock O'Brien and Josh Head replacing Dean Solomon (suspended), Clayton Hinkley (omitted) and Rhys Palmer (general soreness).

The Dockers' 22 that will run out against Melbourne is a vastly different outfit that confronted Collingwood at the MCG in round one.

But Harvey said the combination of injuries, retirements and suspensions had allowed him to take a deeper look at his list.

"Look, I think we're up around 36 or 37 players we've played this year," he said.

"Players on the sidelines - we can't pick them at the moment. As I've said, players are getting opportunities, we're trawling the list and finding out where we're at."

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