Fremantle have defied the odds and kept their season alive with a pulsating 27-point win over their fiercest rivals West Coast at a packed Subiaco Oval.

The two men Eagles fans love to hate most, Josh Carr and Jeff Farmer, were pivotal with three goals apiece, with Carr leading the physical assault and Farmer the Dockers attack.

And despite Mark Le Cras' four-goal effort, the Eagles could not recover from falling four goals behind early, thanks largely to Carr's brutal intensity.

An incendiary start saw Carr take the Eagles head-on, stamping his authority on the 26th derby, and Daniel Kerr in particular.

The Eagles on-baller was still recovering from a Paul Hasleby coathanger when he was monstered on the floor by Carr within the first five minutes.

His follow-up as the Eagle lay prostrate angered team-mates, but embodied the spirit Freo's caretaker coach Mark Harvey played with and asked for in the build-up.

After a first 15 minutes of massive physicality, the Dockers found themselves four goals to the good, with brains allied to their braun.

And Harvey's idea of having the Carr brothers take Ben Cousins and Kerr into unfamiliar defensive territory was working a treat, with the lead as much as 34 points.

The second half started with as much fire as the first had, with Carr again at the centre of the action.

A late hit on Kerr over the boundary line fired up Eagles players and fans, with a drink and then a bottle aimed at the Docker from the West Coast crowd.

The fan's response was matched by the players, with three unanswered goals bringing the Eagles within a kick midway through the third term.

But a 50m penalty against Cousins on Carr gave him his second goal, Freo an 11-point last-change lead and the belief leading into the last term.

In as intense a last quarter as either team has played this year, Carr yet again had the first word, kicking his third to further quieten the home crowd.

And despite the Eagles' best efforts to haul in their cross-city rivals, it was Freo who kicked on, with Farmer's third goal, Hasleby's first and Heath Black's long bomb sealing a famous win - which may also seal Harvey the Freo job.

It also kept the Dockers' slim finals hopes alive, leaving them a game-and-a-half out of the eight with four games to go.

Carr was named Ross Glendinning medallist for best-on-ground, an entirely correct decision predictably booed by the Eagles fans still at the ground.

And to top off a perfect day for Freo fans, they turned a potential second spot for the Eagles into a fifth, tied with Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn on 44 points.

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