Despite good form himself, Fremantle's Ryan Crowley wants to make it clear he and his teammates are gutted and desperately want to taste victory soon.

Crowley, 24, has had a tremendous personal 2008 season and had a solid game across half back with 25 possessions in the loss to Port Adelaide on Sunday, but it doesn't make up for Fremantle's fifth successive fadeout, and he admits he has no idea why his team is struggling late in games.

"It's really hard to put your finger on what's happening. We are trying different things. If we knew what the problem was, we'd fix it tomorrow, but we just have to keep trying to find the formula," Crowley said.

"We are all proud people and are gutted at the moment. We don’t want people thinking we aren’t hurting. This is killing us, and we feel the frustration as much as anyone."

Crowley has done some good jobs running with Gary Ablett, Adam Cooney and Chris Judd already this season. The performance on Cooney was the most pleasing until the star Bulldog moved forward and helped win the game for his side, but Crowley is now looking forward to tackling the Brisbane Lions in-form midfield this Sunday at the Gabba.

"I probably haven’t been in as good ball-winning form as I would like, but in playing those roles, my primary aim is to shut those guys down. It has helped my football a lot. In the last month I've played on Ablett, Cooney and Judd, so it's been a big month," he said.

"Brisbane also has a really good midfield, so I imagine I'll have a big job next week. If I had to choose one who was the toughest, it would probably be Adam Cooney. He's in really good form and he was especially tough to stop. It was tough to watch him go forward in the last quarter, but that was out of my hands."

It hasn’t always been an easy ride to make it as an AFL footballer for Crowley. He was initially drafted by Fremantle from Gisborne in 2002 and soon fell homesick, and almost returned to the east coast after 2004. He got another chance, though, and has never looked back.

On arrival in Perth, Crowley played in a premiership at WAFL club Subiaco under current Fremantle assistant coach Peter German, and he credits German and Subiaco for an AFL career that has now reached 60 games.

"I was pretty much on my way home a few years ago, so I'm quite proud of where I'm at now," Crowley said.

"I had never been away from home longer than two weeks before I moved over here. Being 17 and all of a sudden having to cook, clean and do everything yourself was a tough gig, as you take it all for granted when you live with your parents. At the time you never think you'll get homesick, but I definitely did and it's good to be over it now.

"Pete has always been a supporter of mine and gave me a variety of roles. I played half back for half a season, I played a lot up forward and I had roles in my midfield, which I'm thankful for getting the opportunity to do. The premiership there was one of my highlights of my career so far, but it's not the big one."