Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich has given a frank insight into the departure of Mark Harvey as Fremantle coach, revealing his communications had become "garbled" and his tactics confusing and erratic before he was sacked and replaced by Ross Lyon.

In an extract from his new book Purple Heart, published in The West Australian, Pavlich said the Dockers playing group struggled to understand the messages Harvey tried to get across through the 2011 season.

"Like all good coaches, he was trying to be hard and demanding on the players," Pavlich wrote.

"But the message became garbled - to the point where a player would walk out of a team meeting and ask 'what was that all about?'

"It was a frustrating period for me and put me in a tough position. Often with Harvs, I was playing the translator rather than someone reinforcing his message."

Pavlich also said Harvey's unusual tactical moves had contributed to the injury-plagued Dockers' seven straight losses to end 2011.

"Harvs was becoming more erratic and spontaneous and inconsistent with his message. which filtered through to the group," Pavlich wrote.

"Left-field thinking came to the fore: trying an obscure technique, changing our training venue, exposing players to new roles.

"We would regularly apply impromptu and untrained methods at our stoppage structures, changing them in order to surprise the opposition.

"While it had the potential to work in our favour, that outcome was reliant upon the remainder of four game plan and system being rock solid.

"It wasn't...ultimately it all made for reactive players who were thinking too much and not playing on instinct. Bad footy was the result."

Pavlich admitted he had held discussions with senior Dockers figures about Harvey's tenure and that, without Fremantle's surprise finals appearance of 2010, someone else would already have been in charge in 2011.

"Had we not gone as well [in 2010], I have no doubt Chris Scott would have been our coach for 2011," Pavlich wrote.

According to Pavlich he had little dialogue with the Fremantle hierarchy through the second half of 2011 and he believed "by that stage, they must have made up their minds."

When the axe finally fell on Harvey in September 2011 - and Ross Lyon shockingly plucked from St Kilda to be Dockers coach - Pavlich said he was out to lunch in Subiaco with news staff from Channel Nine, with whom he had a contract at the time.

The phone call came from Fremantle's general manager of football, Chris Bond.

"'It has just been confirmed by the board and only done moments ago mate'," Pavlich recalled Bond as telling him.

"'Harvs is no longer our senior coach and Ross Lyon will coach you and the team in 2012.'

"...then he asked 'Are you happy with this?'...I bluntly and instinctively replied 'Yeah I am'."

Lyon has since led Fremantle to four straight finals appearances, including a grand final in 2013.

Pavlich told Fox Footy on Saturday morning he was still yet to make a decision about his future, following the Dockers' preliminary final exit at the hands of Hawthorn last week.