Carlton and Fremantle are set to pit two AFL superstars - Chris Judd and Matthew Pavlich - head-to-head on the Gold Coast on Saturday night.

Fremantle coach Mark Harvey has signalled Pavlich is likely to spend time running with Judd in the midfield - something his Carlton counterpart Brett Ratten says he is expecting and is relishing.

And in a secondary battle no less interesting, Harvey will back Chris Tarrant to play in defence on Carlton spearhead Brendan Fevola, who is coming off eight goals against Hawthorn last week.

"I appreciate Chris Judd as a player and there will be periods where Matthew will play on him," Harvey said on Wednesday.

"That always adds to the game itself and people go to watch those sorts of contests. Matthew loves those challenges and they are both great players, so we will see how he goes.

"Chris played on Brendan when we played in Bunbury (in a practice game in March) and went OK.

"Tarrant played on a smaller forward on the weekend which was (Mark) LeCras and we were happy with the result.

"Sometimes we need to compliment him because he's going really well, and that gives me enough confidence to give him a challenge like Fevola."

Ratten said he would be happy to let the Judd-Pavlich match-up happen - if only as a possible solution to his own shortage of potential opponents for the Dockers skipper.

"He's bit of a concern for us. He's a big-bodied player, he's in really good touch," Ratten said of Pavlich.

"When we played them in Bunbury he tried to pick up Judd a fair bit so I wonder if they'll go down that path again?

"It should be a great battle if they do."

Harvey will need to blood more young players with the Dockers' injury list growing.

Dockers tagger Ryan Crowley is seeing a specialist in Melbourne for a badly injured foot, midfielder Rhys Palmer is out for the season with a knee reconstruction and Chris Mayne, Des Headland, Hayden Ballantyne, Kepler Bradley and Brock O'Brien are unlikely to be available until after the mid-season break.

Midfielder Andrew Browne is also out indefinitely for personal reasons.

Ruckman Zac Clarke has been solid in his first year of WAFL football with East Perth, while Swan Districts trio Michael Walters (small forward), Clancee Pearce (running half back) and Luke Pratt (mid-size defender) could soon receive a chance.

Midfielder Andrew Foster has played two league games with East Fremantle and was good last Sunday, but needs another week coming off a severe back injury.

"I'd say for the rest of the year we will introduce three, four or five more new players into our side," Harvey said.

"We hold him (Foster) in really high regard and he's been through a significant injury with his back, and is only just starting to come into form that indicates he's somewhere near selection."

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