The Fremantle Dockers sit on top of the AFL ladder as the only undefeated side left in the competition leading into Sunday's clash with Melbourne at the MCG.

The Western Bulldogs may have been the biggest surprise packet of the first month and the best feelgood story so far, but it's the Dockers who have made the biggest statement.

We all know premierships aren't won in May but I've asked myself this question a few times throughout this week after their victory over Sydney in Perth last weekend. Am I looking at the makings of a premiership side or is this just the same professionally run playing group that we have seen in previous years who will inevitably fall short come the business end of the season?

If you stand still in this game, you get left behind. It is why Alistair Clarkson is the best coach in the game because he has developed three different game styles for each of his three premierships. Clarkson has quality players to work with but he learnt from the 2009 season where the Hawks didn't make the finals.

It didn't take Clarkson long to work out that the competition catches up quickly and you must evolve even more so after winning a premiership the year before.

Ross Lyon has an unbelievable home-and-away coaching record winning almost 70 per cent of matches as he approaches his 200th game as an AFL senior coach with St Kilda and Fremantle.

Lyon is a magnificent coach who has an amazing ability to get his players to go to any lengths to execute and carry out what he demands with maximum effort. Lyon has always had the ability to get buy-in from his players which, for a wide range of reasons, so many coaches at all levels of football don't have the ability to achieve.

For all that, Ross Lyon is not a premiership coach and he will never go down as a coaching great without one and you wonder whether he will ever get another opportunity greater than what he has this year to win that elusive premiership.

I for one thought that opportunity for Lyon and his Dockers had past them by as they bowed out of the finals in straight sets last year. The Dockers were battered with injuries at the wrong time of the year and with Pavlich, Sandilands and McPharlin not getting any younger, I believed the Dockers' time had come and gone for the ultimate success with that group of champion players, particularly the way Port Adelaide finished the season.

Time will tell what the future holds but Fremantle couldn't have started the season in better fashion. The Dockers have beaten Port Adelaide, West Coast and Sydney at home and Geelong at Simonds Stadium, never an easy assignment.

Ross Lyon spoke at his press conference the day before round one of how they had upped the players training loads by 40 per cent in comparison to the previous year. Every club says they have had the hardest pre-season ever but that is huge and while that could backfire and have players breaking down, Fremantle look to have as healthy a playing group as they could hope for. They are a mature playing group that look fitter and leaner than I have seen in the past with the skipper Matthew Pavlich a prime example.

So what's changed so far and still has to change that could take Fremantle from a top four side over the last two seasons to a premiership team in 2015?

Defence will never be an issue with a Ross Lyon coached side and while the Dockers still need to score more than they have so far this season, the emergence of Lachie Neale at the clearances to complement Aaron Sandilands, Nat Fyfe, David Mundy and Michael Barlow has been significant.

Fremantle have never taken advantage of Sandilands taps but they are now the number one scoring team from clearances in the AFL. Ryan Crowley has been a warrior for Fremantle for many years but for all his worth, the game has gone past having a lock down player in the side every week. Fremantle's ability to open up the opposition at the clearances and score has seen the Dockers score four more goals a match in that area than they did last year.

Fremantle have been badly exposed by Hawthorn in recent seasons due to the outside run and flair in uncontested possession that the likes of Isaac Smith, Bradley Hill and Cyril Rioli can create. Fremantle's greater flexibility in the middle of the ground is also having a flow-on effect to the outside runners in Stephen Hill and Danyle Pearce who are in career best form.

This is where Fremantle look to have found the missing ingredient to previous years where they lacked the flair in attack that the eventual premiership teams like Geelong and Hawthorn have possessed.

Zac Dawson is another Docker who has given everything for Ross Lyon and Fremantle in his time at the club. Dawson is out with injury but I believe that the Dockers are a far more effective back line in 2015 without him.

The modern games now suits just two tall defenders who can stop an opponent but also have the ability to create attacking plays out of defence.

Luke McPharlin and Michael Johnson are the players who do that and they are both in scintillating form. Garrick Ibbotson who played just 12 games last season plays the third tall role extremely well yet can play on the smalls as well and is a great user of the football.

Duffield, Spurr and Sutcliffe are underrated and provide constant run out of defence and that forms a far more attacking back six without Dawson who looks to handball at every occasion because of a lack of confidence in his disposal. Dawson will be used as a back up if Luke McPharlin can't stand up for the length of the season and Fremantle will need to manage him through the year as the Dockers need McPharlin healthy in September if they are to be the premiers.

Zac Clarke and Matthew Taberner may well be the piece in the puzzle that determines what Fremantle are fully capable of. Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters are elite players who will worry any defence but it's that second tall option to Pavlich that remains questionable. Can Clarke or Taberner improve enough in the next 18 weeks to play a Jack Gunston role and kick 35 goals for the season. I'm unsure of that but it's going to be needed if Fremantle are to be the real deal.

It takes a lot of luck and good fortune to win a premiership as a little Matthew Scarlett toe poke stood between Ross Lyon and the Saints winning the flag in 2009.

Sometimes you just have to keep banging on the door and asking the questions and Fremantle look likely to be there when the whips are cracking yet again in 2015.

Scoring more than 100 points against Melbourne today at the MCG would be another big step forward in what's been a near flawless start to the Dockers 2015 campaign.