Fremantle's season lies in winless tatters and with a huge injury concern over giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands after West Coast won a scrappy rain-affected western derby by 33 points at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.

While the Eagles improved to 2-1 with the 12.20 (92) to 8.11 (59) win and showed their capitulation against Hawthorn last week was, perhaps, an aberration, the Dockers are now 0-3 and face a massive battle to play finals, let alone challenge for a top-four spot.

Whatever the Dockers do from here on in, they might have to do without the massive figure of Sandilands, who left the ground mid-way through the second quarter after Nic Naitanui clattered into his back while taking a big pack mark in the Eagles' forward line.

Sandilands left the stadium in an ambulance and wearing an oxygen mask, with rib and lung damage a likely prognosis.

The injury left 20-year-old Alex Pearce to battle Naitanui and Scott Lycett in the ruck contests, bizarrely with a chopout at times from 186-centimetre Matt de Boer.

As comical as de Boer looked, he didn't look half as funny as some of Fremantle's inept attempts to clear the ball from the back half of the ground. To some extent, it wouldn't have mattered who the Dockers threw into the ruck, such was the extent to which they shot themselves in the feet for large periods of the second and third terms.

Ross Lyon's team managed just two goals between quarter-time and three-quarter-time, then suddenly sprang back to life in a final-term spurt in which former captain Matthew Pavlich kicked a brilliant banana goal from deep in the left-forward pocket.

Fremantle got back within two straight kicks but the Eagles steadied and effectively iced the contest when Lewis Jetta kicked his first goal as a West Coast player 19 minutes into the term.

The off-season recruit owed his new club one after blowing an absolute sitter 30 metres out during a patch early in the final quarter when the Eagles really should have put the game away for good.

The Eagles' eventual margin of victory was padded by late goals to Jack Darling, Luke Shuey and Josh Kennedy and suitably rewarded midfield stalwart and Brownlow medallist Matt Priddis on his 200th game.

True to form, Priddis was tough, prolific and creative around the clinches in winning the Glendinning Medal in his milestone match. He was ably assisted by the clean work of Shuey in traffic, while Darling started like a freight train and was the most dangerous forward on the ground.

Dockers fans will be left wondering where their first win for 2016 might come from. Next week's clash with North Melbourne becomes even more crucial, although there were some encouraging signs in the way Pavlich moved and presented a forward threat and the competitiveness with which Alex Pearce approached the task before him.

Fremantle had started brightly enough, with Michael Walters slamming through the opening goal of the game from 50 metres after a howler of a Jeremy McGovern kick in West Coast's back half.

Pavlich was lively in the forward line, Hayden Ballantyne was getting involved, Nat Fyfe was prominent and even Zac Dawson was taking contested marks in the defensive 50.

At quarter-time Fremantle led by eight points and there was a feeling it might well have been more had they been just a little cleaner up forward.

But things started to turn sour for the Dockers in the second quarter, as a series of unforced errors — combined with the Sandilands blow and a breakdown in Fremantle's ball movement — resulted in a goalless quarter.

The Eagles won the second-term inside-50s 14-8 and the Dockers' defenders did themselves no favours with their lacklustre attempts to clear the ball. Garrick Ibbottson and Lee Spurr, in particular, looked shaky.

And things didn't improve when the heavens opened at half-time and rain continued into the third quarter.

For the Eagles, Chris Masten was a solid contributor on his return from injury and Elliot Yeo was solid throughout. Naitanui was influential with his 31 hitouts and attack in the air.

Brownlow medallist Fyfe was Fremantle's most effective midfielder, Lachie Neale was busy throughout and Spurr did some handy things in defence.