Fremantle coach Mark Harvey has told his players to embrace match-defining situations after goalsneak Hayden Ballantyne nailed the sealing goal against Melbourne on Sunday.

The Dockers were clinging to a four-point lead with just over two minutes remaining when Ballantyne swooped on a loose ball near the boundary, unleashed his blistering pace and wobbled through a 45m goal off his non-preferred left foot.

Fremantle ended up winning by 11 points and Harvey said he had no issue with Ballantyne going for goal instead of pin-pointing a team-mate in a better position.

"There's always moments in games when you have to take that shot on goal - some players are up to it, some aren't," Harvey said.

"Over many weeks we've had some moments where we've looked back and what you do is you try to brace your whole team that if you are involved in that moment of the game when you need to do the thing that's going to lift a team, then take it upon yourself.

"Hayden's one of those guys that takes a lot of punts when he plays.

"It's indicative of the guy early in his career that he can do that.

"He's a dynamic little player and perhaps we should have a look at the type of player he is rather than look at the other things he possibly does throughout the course of the game."

Fourth spot goes on the line when Fremantle tackle the fifth-placed Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The Dockers can create a two-game buffer between themselves and fifth spot with a win.

But with the Bulldogs boasting a superior percentage, Fremantle will slip to fifth if they lose.

With so much up for grabs, you could excuse Fremantle's players for getting a little bit excited.

But it seems excitement is in short supply at Dockerland - not so the company line.

"We are just going to take it as another game," defender Greg Broughton said on Monday.

"We think every game's important so we've just got to take it as another game.

"We just take every game as another one, so it's just another game for us.

"We just want to work on our game plan and get our game plan right.

"You've seen the way we play but we just need to perform for four quarters, that's what we need to improve on.

"We missed a few easy shots on the weekend and that's something we have to improve on during the week."

Harvey hoped defender Chris Tarrant (heel) and Antoni Grover (hamstring) would return against the Bulldogs, while forward Chris Mayne (ankle) is also in line for a recall.

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