ROSS Lyon has told the Fremantle players that he expects no backing off in intensity or effort against Port Adelaide, despite so many senior players being rested. 

The Dockers have already confirmed that Matthew Pavlich, Luke McPharlin, Aaron Sandilands, David Mundy, Stephen Hill and Lee Spurr will all be rested this week to freshen up ahead of the finals. 

Cam Sutcliffe is also set to miss with a shoulder injury. At least seven spots are available at the moment and Lyon has said there could be up to 11 changes.

According to Champion Data, all seven have played more than 2000 minutes this season. Garrick Ibbotson and Chris Mayne are the other two Dockers to have played that many minutes.

Connor Blakely has already been confirmed to make his AFL debut as one of the replacements.

But Lyon said he was not expecting the players who head to Adelaide Oval this week to simply go through the motions against Port Adelaide, as was the case in round 23, 2013, when the Dockers last rested a host of senior players. 

"We've already spoken to the player group about it," Lyon said.

"We weren't thrilled with our performance against St Kilda in 2013.

"We were really unhappy with people that were given an opportunity at the end of 2013, and didn't perform with the intensity and the effort that we were looking for.

"So we're certainly not saying we're not going over to win. We're going over to aim to win and play with intensity.

"We'll do a fierce review on it like we normally do. So we're not backing off." 

The Dockers made 11 changes in round 23, 2013 against St Kilda. They picked six players who had not played a single game all year, three of them made their AFL debuts. 

The Dockers were held scoreless in the opening term by a Saints team that had won just four games for the season to that point. St Kilda collected a record 520 disposals, 384 of them uncontested, also a record, and won by 71 points.

Lyon pointed to his experience as St Kilda coach, prior to coming to Fremantle, as an example of how the Dockers should approach this week. 

"We rested (eight) in 2009 and went down to Tassie and beat Hawthorn, who weren't flying at that stage but they were still pretty competitive," Lyon said.

The Saints had won 18 straight matches in 2009 before a round 19 clash with Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium. The Hawks were 10^th on the ladder having won the premiership in 2008.

Lyon opted to rest Lenny Hayes, Steven Baker, Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt, Brendon Goddard, Sam Fisher and Nick Dal Santo, but the Saints beat Hawthorn comfortably by 25 points.   

The Fremantle players that are rested this week will conduct a training session over the weekend. 

"It's obviously different from the mid-season break where they go away for five days and they back right off," Lyon said.

"The difference is you keep going here. You have a normal week. You train and you review and they'll train over the weekend. 

"Their mind won't be off football. But obviously that pressure of performance isn't there for a week and that anxiety isn't there for a week. So they'll probably sleep a little bit better."