Fremantle is determined to ignore its dismal history in Melbourne as it prepares to face Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The Dockers are buoyed by last week's upset victory over Adelaide and don't plan to let disappointing statistics ruin their preparation.

They have a 7-29 record at Etihad Stadium and 0-8 against Essendon at the venue but, according to assistant coach Barry Mitchell, the team has not discussed those figures.

"We haven't looked back at any of that, we just look at it as a new year so we haven't mentioned the previous record," Mitchell said.

"It's just us coming to terms with it - and what we want to do is win more games in Melbourne, regardless of who the opposition is."

Mitchell also said coach Mark Harvey quickly moved the players on from basking too long in last week's win.

"It was good to get off to a good start but we're very mindful of the fact that we had to get onto this week.

"Our big thing is backing up and going from week to week.

"We were happy with the game and by Monday we'd gone through our reviews and moved on.

"I think when you do move on from the game quickly, start to look at the opposition straight away, start to focus for the following game you can do that.

"If you start to talk about the weekend and how good it was for three or four days you can probably lead down that way and we definitely didn't do that this week," he said.

Former Essendon key position player Adam McPhee is back at the Dockers after seven years with the Bombers but Mitchell said he was capable of handling himself if he became a target.

"I don't know what you can do these days with that sort of stuff - it might be a bit of push and shove and that might be about it," Mitchell said.

"Any player who's played AFL footy for eight or 10 years knows how to handle most things so I don't think it will be a problem."

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