Fremantle coach Mark Harvey admits his players are tired and are in desperate need of rejuvenation after the Dockers almost stumbled to an unthinkable AFL loss against Melbourne at Subiaco Oval on Sunday.

The Dockers looked to have their 11th win of the season in the bag after surging to a 44-point lead late in the second quarter.

But seven unanswered goals to Melbourne turned the game on its head as the Demons threatened to cause a massive boil over.

Lynden Dunn and Jack Watts had the chance to put the Demons ahead in the dying minutes of the match, but their set shot misses from 35m out proved costly, with Hayden Ballantyne's brilliant left-foot goal on the run sealing the 11-point win to the Dockers, 11.16 (82) to 10.11 (71).

Fourth spot goes on the line when Fremantle tackle the fifth-placed Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Sunday but Harvey rejected claims it was a season defining match.

"No, it's just another game for us but we understand the importance of it," Harvey said.

"The interesting part about this seven weeks to go is how you manage your players because they appeared to be off their feet a little bit (against the Demons), particularly the guys who have played the majority of the year.

"I think there's a few players that have carried a significant load of the team but we're trying to manage that through the course of the week.

"(We are not going to rest them) from a playing point of view, but more from a during the week point of view.

"We've probably got (Chris) Tarrant and (Antoni) Grover coming back next week so we've just got to get the balance of our team right knowing we are playing the Bulldogs this week."

Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Clint Jones, Liam Jurrah and Jordie McKenzie were influential in Melbourne's third-quarter fightback as the Dockers struggled to limit the damage.

"Probably it's disturbing that you can let an opposition have that sort of an effect in a quarter, and that's something we need to address because we won't get away with that against sides that are dominating the competition at the moment," Harvey said.

"So that was the issue with us, that we let them, in our backyard, to get back into the game too easily."

Melbourne coach Dean Bailey was more focused with his side's inept first quarter - when the Dockers booted six goals to one - rather than Melbourne's stirring fightback.

"You can't excuse our effort in the first quarter," Bailey said.

"That is the underlying reason we had to fight our way back from behind.

"Character's not based on a quarter, it's not based on five or six minutes of any game, the character starts from the start.

"If you're not prepared to fight your way into the game at the start, you're going to be chasing the opposition for the whole game and that's what we did."

Green injured his finger and will undergo scans to determine the damage, while Brent Maloney (corked thigh) is also facing a race against time to be fit for Sunday's clash with Sydney at the MCG.

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