GEELONG coach Chris Scott says there is no reason why captain Patrick Dangerfield can't peak at the right time of the season after a match-winning final quarter against Fremantle that catapulted the Cats into the top four on Saturday night. 

Dangerfield was immense with the game on the line at Optus Stadium, winning six contested possessions and two vital centre clearances while also pushing forward late as the Cats came from behind. 

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The 34-year-old Brownlow medallist finished with 11 clearances and was spent on the final siren, with Scott confident that a patient program to recover from two hamstring injuries was going to help him produce at a high level over the coming weeks. 

"As much as anyone, we thought he was the one that took the game away from them," Scott said after the important road win. 

"You never want them to get injured, but when they do at that age, we made a concerted effort to prioritise later in the season and held him back a little bit and we think that that's worked for us before.

"We see no reason why he can't be in really good shape for the last couple of months this year, and this was a good example.

"I tend not to worry about age. I'll just back what the running data is telling us, and more importantly what our eyes are telling us, and he hasn't lost any speed or power to my eye."

Saturday's win moved the Cats up to third on the ladder ahead of clashes against St Kilda (Marvel Stadium) and West Coast (GMHBA Stadium), with Scott well aware of the potential significance of beating Fremantle on the road. 

He said the Cats were "confident, but not over-confident" that they could produce their best football at the right time of the year after winning their sixth game in seven weeks. 

Asked if he was reflecting on the magnitude of the win and its ladder implications, the premiership coach said: "Yeah, a little bit. I think that's a coach's job and those that say they just take it one week at a time either aren't telling the truth or aren't doing their jobs properly.

"But what you are trying to do is get the players away from thinking that way. We need to be across all that, but our players just need to get the next bit right."

Scott said midfielder Tanner Bruhn had been substituted with "dizziness symptoms", while the club made the cautious decision to hold forward Gary Rohan back after intending for him to return from concussion. 

Fremantle also made a late change, with ruckman Sean Darcy withdrawn 10 minutes before the bounce on Saturday after struggling with knee soreness and being managed through a six-day break. 

Coach Justin Longmuir said he had some concerns about the big man's ability to get through games in the short-term and he would carry soreness through the rest of the season. 

The coach was also concerned about a trend that has emerged this season, losing a fifth match for the year after leading at three-quarter time. 

"Clearly, it's disappointing. We didn't finish off the game the way we wanted to finish, but the start comes back to bite you," Longmuir said.  

"You give a team in this sort of game a four-goal head start and you're on the back foot from the very start, so we need to be better than that.

"They got on top in clearance as the game went on and our contest work just didn't hold up after some signs after half-time, and our method didn't hold up the way we wanted it to in certain areas."

Longmuir said ruckman Luke Jackson had acquitted himself well in the ruck after Darcy went out of the team, but losing the forward/ruck as a marking target in attack had hurt the team with Josh Treacy already sidelined. 

Without two of their best marking targets, he said the Dockers had struggled later in the game to handle the Cats' loose man in defence and gone sideways and backwards with their ball movement instead of driving forwards. 

The loss has left the team fighting for a place in the eight when it could have taken a significant step to securing a top-four finish. 

"We are flat at the moment, but like I said to the players after the game … this is a tough game and it's going to deal some blows at times, but we're not done," Longmuir said. 

"And I'm confident it won't take much to get them back up and up for the challenge next week." 

The Dockers face Greater Western Sydney (Engie Stadium) and Port Adelaide (Optus Stadium) in a challenging final fortnight, with Treacy, Darcy and Michael Walters (hamstring) expected to return to face the Giants.