Roos coach Brad Scott, however, sees no reason why history cannot repeat itself this weekend, even if it means doing what no other team has been able to do this year –  silence the growing "mystique" (as Scott calls it) that the Dockers and their shaggy-haired superstar Nat Fyfe are unstoppable.

The mission is eerily similar. Same opponent, same ground and virtually the same odds staked against them.

But instead of being without its best three players of the past few years – Andrew Swallow, Scott Thompson and Daniel Wells – this time it will be missing three high-quality players out of the same area of the ground, with Nick Dal Santo this time sitting out alongside fellow midfielders Wells (who hasn't played since round two) and Swallow, who it emerged this week has a fractured right thumb.

Arguably, it makes this year's quest even greater given the midfield is the one area you can least afford to be depleted in when heading to Perth to face Ross Lyon's purple machine.

It is arguable, too, that the Dockers are a better team this year – currently undefeated on top – and that is in part due to the fact they have increased the depth of their on-ball division, with David Mundy seemingly having gone to a new level and the likes of Lachie Neale, Stephen Hill and Danyle Pearce also elevating their games, not to mention Michael Barlow.

They are serviced by the league's most formidable big man – Aaron Sandilands – whose hit-out dominance is now translating to clearance superiority, and then of course there is Fyfe, who is now the best footballer in the country, say the masses.

It all adds up to quite the task, or a "significant challenge" as Scott termed it.

"We pride ourselves on our depth. Last year we won over there without our reigning best and fairest winners three years running... so it's about the players who are there and we are really confident with the 22 we will put forward," he said, before acknowledging of Fremantle "they're 7-0 for a reason".

Fyfe is the man at the moment. A tearaway favourite for the Brownlow Medal, the 23-year-old has wowed the industry with his toughness, athleticism and ability to win just abut any one-on-one contest that comes his way.

In one sense he has done the possible in that is has made those having the "who is the No.1 player in the AFL" conversation forget about Gary Ablett, even if there is a bit of out of sight, out of mind about it all.

Scott understands the love-fest surrounding the superstar Docker in the media over the past few weeks, but insisted on Wednesday that neither he nor his team could afford to buy into the Fyfe hype.

"We've got some pretty good midfielders as well, who are in some pretty good form and we'll just take him on," Scott said, when quizzed on North's plan to stop Fyfe.

"Clearly we've got a lot of respect for him, as everyone does, but sometimes the mystique can build to where people think he is unstoppable," he said. "He's a really good player, but every team has got really good players."

The statistics merely support what the experts are saying but do so nicely, with Fyfe leading the league for contested possessions, contested marks and score involvements in the area of the ground Champion Data considers the "midfield zone" – numbers that illustrate perfectly his all-round ground and aerial game and overall impact.

"I understand that he is a great player and everyone is rightfully talking highly of him," Scott said.

"But I've said before with teams who have got really good individuals – if you focus on them, you take your eye off someone like Mundy – and I think that's disrespectful to Mundy, I think it's disrespectful to Stephen Hill and Michael Barlow and Lachie Neale and Danyle Pearce.

"There's no point having a superstar midfielder that doesn't have a good midfield around him, and Fremantle have got that."

Scott said he was confident key players Jarrad Waite and Lachie Hansen would recover from minor complaints arising from last week's win over Essendon, but fellow big man Ben Brown (knee) was less likely to come up.