The Brisbane Lions won't be the only side missing key players this Saturday afternoon, with Fremantle stars Matthew Pavlich and Aaron Sandilands both needing to build their fitness at training before coming under consideration.
Fremantle Coach Ross Lyon confirmed on Tuesday that mone of Pavlich, Sandilands or Michael Walters will face the Lions this weekend.
"We don't know exactly when (Pavlich and Sandilands) will be back," Lyon said.
"Hopefully Michael will be available the week after but the other two guys, it's going to be a work in progress.
Lyon was happy with the way his captain, Pavlich, was progressing with his recovery from Achilles surgery but said he was still a while away yet.
"He's certainly moving along really nicely. We're confident he's going to play in the near term," he said
"But he needs to get a training block under him, as does Aaron."
Meanwhile, Lyon and his coaching staff completed a mid-season review of the Dockers' performance through the first 10 rounds and identified the team's offense as a key area of improvement.
Fremantle are the number one defence in the competition through 11 rounds but are ranked 13th in attack.
"We need to improve our attack. So we're working on that. We'd like to get a couple more goals a week," Lyon said.
"When we win we average 100 (points), in our losses it's about 72, so it's about consistency of attack."
"We're getting plenty of entries (inside 50). The entries are quite high, a bit of accuracy, spread the load, number of goalkickers.
"I think we average nine, the top four average ten so it's about sharing the load."
The Dockers were on a six-match unbeaten run heading into the bye, the second best unbeaten streak in the club's history, but Lyon felt the break had been perfectly timed for his team.
"It's been a really good mental freshener. They’re really sharp. They're enthusiastic and vibrant and they're looking forward to the challenge against Brisbane."
