FREMANTLE needs to be ruthless in its pursuit of a complete performance and not just expect that Saturday night's Western Derby will be played on its terms, according to ruckman Sean Darcy. 

The fourth-placed Dockers will take outstanding form into Derby 59 after a clearance domination against Melbourne (47-15) that was the third most one-sided of any recorded by Champion Data. 

They also remain comfortably the best stoppage side in the League and are on track to break the Western Bulldogs' 2022 record for clearance differential across a season with an average of 8.5 more than their opponents this year. 

While Darcy praised the performance of the midfield group on Sunday, the gun ruckman said nothing could be taken for granted against an Eagles team that beat them by 37 points back in round six. 

"We let ourselves down in the last one, so we're excited. We want to play some really good footy and we've got to be ruthless this time of the year because the season is so close," Darcy told AFL.com.au. 

"It's about not expecting it to happen but making it happen and that's something that we're trying to do. 

"We've got a lot of leaders in the midfield, me included, so we've got to lead from the front and play some good footy because Derbies are always hot and feisty."

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke about the rare heights Fremantle's stoppage game was entering on Sunday when he said the team had "clearance numbers that are as good as anything seen in the competition for a long time". 

St Kilda (+33 against Gold Coast in 2018) and Carlton (+32 against West Coast in 2023) are the only teams to have better clearance differentials in a match than the Dockers recorded on Sunday. The Bulldogs (+8.3 in 2022) hold the record for clearance differential over the course of a full season.

While the Demons chose to tackle Darcy and Luke Jackson without a bona fide ruckman, given Max Gawn's unavailability because of injury, the Dockers consistently beat their ground-level opponents when the ball was in dispute. 

It's been another trend this season, with their pre-clearance contested possession differential this season the fourth biggest of any side at round 19 since Champion Data started recording the statistic.

Darcy said the Dockers had a plan to exploit the Demons' makeshift ruck pair of Harrison Petty and Jacob van Rooyen, but the lack of a genuine ruck opponent had unsettled him to an extent.

"I understood that I was going to get first hand to it, and so was 'Dogga' (Jackson), but we faced that against Carlton last year and we were very disappointing," Darcy said. 

"We learned a lot from that, and it was something we talked about that we can't just think it's going to be on our terms.  

"We've got to make it on our terms, so that's something I was really happy with and how much we've grown from this time last year. 

"It's a bit of cat and mouse (without a ruck opponent) and you've always got to be thinking, and I thought it's something that as a midfield group we've really improving with.

"We're talking out there all the time and we're not waiting until quarter-time or half-time for (midfield coach) Joel Corey to tell us what to do."

Darcy's impact against Melbourne extended beyond his 34 hitouts and nine taps to advantage, with the 26-year-old also recording seven clearances of his own and a game-high eight score launches. 

The big man, who was feeling good physically after returning from concussion, said he had been working hard on ways to have an impact at stoppages beyond his hitouts as opponents work on new ways to counter the Dockers' clearance strength.  

"If their mids are being really tight on our mids, I can grab the ball out of the ruck and draw one or two and handball it," Darcy said. 

"That's something that I want to try to do and I'm building. I think every game I'm getting better and our mids are getting a better understanding of what to do when I grab it."