FREMANTLE will arrive at the MCG on Sunday looking to replicate the form that saw it almost topple Geelong, but coach Mark Harvey will make sure his side doesn’t come out expecting to beat the winless Melbourne.

Even though it was a loss and puts Fremantle to a record of 1-5, it takes great confidence out of the performance against the Cats on Anzac Day and a repeat performance should see the Dockers beat the Demons, but injuries and suspension have caused concern.

Josh Carr will miss three weeks after kneeing Gary Ablett, while defenders Antoni Grover and Roger Hayden come out through injury.

Des Headland looks set to return, though, with young midfielders Brock O'Brien and Andrew Foster a chance to play their first game of the season after impressive WAFL form.

Forwards Chris Tarrant and Kepler Bradley will be looked at closely after better performances with East and West Perth respectively, while Harvey believes Mark Johnson is another week away after picking up 30 disposals and kicking three goals in his first game for Perth after a knee injury.

"I'm trying to stabilise the team, but haven’t been able to do that with a number of guys missing through injury for a number of weeks. What we are doing is bringing along some young players that are adding some spice and excitement to the group that can hopefully sustain the performance we are looking for," Harvey said.

"It's going to be difficult to replace the defenders and it's an area that Melbourne will look at exploiting. We will have to get the right balance of guys down there to replace them. Hayden gives us a lot of rebound and attack, while Grover does some big jobs for us, but the strength of our side will be guys that can play forward and back."

Harvey knows winning on Sunday is crucial and is hoping that the players bring their confidence from last Friday's performance against Geelong with them.

"We've got nothing to be complacent about ourselves. We are only one game ahead of them and what we have to do is back up our performance against Geelong. That's what we've got to do and hopefully we can do that consistently from now on," Harvey said.

"We have a reasonable record at the MCG, but Melbourne will be up for the game after everything that's been written about them this year and we have to be up for it too."

Aaron Sandilands dominated in the ruck against Geelong in the best game of his career and Harvey is confident that can spur him on to play like that the rest of the season. He's unsure where that leaves young big man Robert Warnock as Sandilands seems to thrive with the more game time he receives.

Warnock has been disappointing in his last two games in the WAFL for West Perth, but Harvey will give him a run either this week or after the week off against the Western Bulldogs to see how he and Sandilands work as a team.

"We will have a look at the balance of having both in the team and find out how they work together, it's just whether or not we do it this week or after the break. I'd like to see them working in sync and work out a rhythm and routine with each other," he said.

"He's (Sandilands) one of those players that tends to grind it out the more time he spends on the ground. The game is telling you that you need to rotate your ruckmen, but if he can continue to play like he did there's no need to take him off the ground."