It's hard to believe there was a time when Fremantle would have been dreading a trip to Melbourne under any circumstances, and when Melbourne at their MCG would top the list but, after playing quality sides in difficult circumstances, Fremantle have been looking forward to this week for a long time. With a track record at the MCG rivalling their efforts at Subiaco Oval in recent season combined with decades of incompetent management of Victoria’s least supported football club, playing the Demons is like a ray of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.

With even less wins in the board than the hapless West Coast Eagles, Melbourne are sitting square on the bottom of the ladder without even a sniff of a win this season. There's nothing to suggest things might change this week either, with the Dockers taking home the 4 points in 8 of the last 10 matches between the sides.

Last time the two sides came together, the Dockers had the game sewn up by half time and romped in to win by 10 goals 22.12 (144) to 12.13 (85), paying tribute to Troy Cook and Shane Parker as the Mexican wave did it's 47th lap of Subiaco Oval. Luke McPharlin kicked a lazy 5 goals, Matthew Pavlich 3 goals 4 behinds with Rusty Robertson kicked 3 for the Demons. Peter Bell had stacks of the footy and picked up the three votes in the Clinton Wolf Medal but the umpires ordered things differently and gave their votes to Pavlich, McPharlin and then Bell. Brad Green got a few kicks for the Demons.

Earlier that year, Fremantle had visited the Demons at the MCG. The Dockers had started the season with the handbrake on after a pre-season crucifixion at the tribunal, putting half their side out of action, and had lost their first three games. On top of that they had had a stressful week, with Josh Carr staring down a lengthy suspension brought on by Daniel Chick's imagination and Des Headland in a bit of trouble for beating the crap out of an Eagles player who claimed to have spent the night with his six year old daughter.

Des got a surprisingly light sentence and made the most of things by leading his team mates in a comprehensive shellacking of the Melbourne Football Club. All the Freo stars hit form, Hasleby, Pavlich, Hayden and Old Man McManus, dominating all over the ground to have the game in the bag by half time before cruising into a 45 point win. Pavlich kicked 6 goals, Headland and Webster kicked 6 between them but no one is quite sure of the exact distribution. Lynden Dunn and Brad Miller kicked 3 each for Melbourne. Adam Yze had 38 touches with Paul Hasleby hot on his tail with 37. The Clinton Wolf Medal Votes went the way of Headland, Hasleby and Pavlich in the least controversial circumstances of the season.

You have to go back to a more turbulent era to find a Melbourne win over the Dockers. Fremantle had just won one of the great derbies, a game where the skills of the sides shone through, not the dirty tactics of the Eagles and the completely off the wall umpiring. It had been a big few weeks for Fremantle, with their infamous Sirengate victory and the Derby falling with a few days of each other. Against Melbourne, Fremantle started like millionaires - running hard, kicking long and dobbing the first two goals of the match but the magnificent start to the game quickly turned into an old school Freo in Victoria style game where the opposition seemed to have more players, and better ones at that. The half time break of 37 points was stretched out to 59 by the end of the day, more than double Fremantle's score.

Adam Yze had 28 touches for Melbourne and Travis Johnstone run amok with 27 and 3 Brownlow votes. Byron Schammer was Freo's top ball getter with 26 touches, Paul Hasbely and Matthew Pavlich weren't far behind, with Pav somehow sneaking in for 2 votes from the umpires.

Fremantle have already made the trip to the MCG once this year, unfortunately it didn't go as well as hoped, with an early ripe Collingwood over running the undermanned Dockers in the last quarter with some highly suspicious umpiring. Freo have had 6 wins from their last 10 trips to the MCG, beating Melbourne in the past two years having also lost to Collingwood.

Melbourne have played 4 matches at the MCG this year and lost all of them, conceding an average of 22 goals and losing by an average of over 11 goals. There two other losses haven't been close either, last week losing to the Brisbane Lions by 52 points at the Gabba. Nathan Jones kicked most of their goals and Cameron Bruce got rid of the ball the most. They are last on the ladder.

Last week, Fremantle were robbed of a victory over the greatest side to come out of Victoria this century, when the time keepers, the umpires and Daniel Gilmore conspired against them. That was Fremantle’s 5th unlucky loss of the season but by far the best and the unluckiest of them all. The Dockers are currently two wins out of the top 8.