The good news for Fremantle is the only travel they have to do now is an end-of-season trip.

But the bad news to ponder over the off-season is how to arrest an appalling away record that continued on Saturday with another poor defeat away from Perth.

The 40-point loss to Geelong at Skilled Stadium provided an all-too-familiar story for the Dockers on the road: unable to adapt to the (muddy) conditions, outmuscled at the ball and on the back foot early.

The 14.10 (94) to 8.6 (54) loss was Fremantle's ninth from 10 games away from Subiaco in 2009, and their 11th in 12 visits overall to Geelong.

By the time the 2010 season rolls around, Fremantle will nurse a record of 26 defeats from 30 road trips in 2007-09, and have gone almost three full years since they won in Victoria.

Fremantle coach Mark Harvey prickled when asked again about his side's inabilities interstate, but conceded too many Dockers had too large a gap between their efforts at home and away.

"They need to narrow that gap and understand their performance needs to mirror what they do at home," he said.

"That will help us and the team."

Harvey said the more Fremantle travelled, the more their away results would improve.

But like the physical builds of the players brushed aside by the Cats, Harvey said the Dockers needed time to mature.

"We have been in transition and building, some guys haven't played on this ground," he said.

"It's not as if we (have) mature bodies and we've had experience of playing on these venues.

"There is a little bit of uncertainty when you're on the road because of that, and people have got to understand that.

"Naturally we'd like to be winning more and if we're going to evolve we need to."

In a season that yielded six wins (the round-seven victory over Carlton on the Gold Coast was the only one outrside Perth) and a finish of 14th, Harvey rated Chris Tarrant's shift to defence as the major positive.

But he was confident the club's 11 debutants in 2009 would improve and provide Fremantle with greater player depth.

Harvey's plan is to continue stockpiling young players, as he ruled out trading away draft picks during the exchange period.

He said it was up to midfielder Paul Hasleby to break the deadlock on contract talks, as Fremantle had offered him a contract.

Hasleby and Steven Dodd were Fremantle's better players against Geelong, but the latter was reported for charging Cats star Gary Ablett.

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