For several years, the Dockers have been a team high on top-end talent - Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands, Nat Fyfe, Michael Johnson and David Mundy - but also heavily reliant on less talented "glue" players to keep things ticking over.

But what happens when that glue stops sticking?

Personally, I thought Fremantle would finish in the lower end of the top eight. I figured the Dockers would still be tough enough to beat at home to get to nine or 10 wins and from there it would be a matter of beating some lesser lights on the roads.

At 0-5 and having just lost to Carlton at Domain Stadium, clearly I'd underestimated how far Ross Lyon's team could fall. And here are some of the factors at play:

Lack of progress of young talent:

The Dockers are in a state of denial about this and love to point out they aren't GWS or Gold Coast and haven't had the benefit of a bunch of high draft picks. Well, so what? You still get to use the draft picks you have to find talent that suits your needs. And if other teams - and Geelong is a prime example - can do it effectively, why can't Freo? The absence of a key forward to replace Matthew Pavlich is the most glaring area of need and I still don't see much progress with that. Matt Taberner took nine marks against Carlton. But he's mobile enough that he should do that just about every week and he hasn't shown enough development of strength to wrestle with backmen or footy nous that he can find ways into the game. There are always whispers about how good Michael Apeness is but we just haven't seen enough of him - and what I've seen has only been average.

Some of the smaller young guys who have come into Lyon's plans - Cameron Sutcliffe, Hayden Crozier and Tom Sheridan - have shown glimpses but don't seem to be taking that next step. It's all well and good for those types of players to be the seventh or eighth best on the ground for Freo when the big names are up and running. But what about when Fyfe, Sandilands and Johnson are all out, as is the case now. Do they have it in them to put in a game-changing, best-afield performance, like what a Paul Puopolo did for Hawthorn on Friday night? The jury is well and truly out.

Older guys going backwards:

Michael Barlow was slightly better against Carlton on the weekend but right now he's a ball amasser who doesn't do much with the footy. Chris Mayne invariably gets a game but you can't have a permanent forward whose entire case for getting picked is his pressure game. At some stage, every forward has to kick goals, not just do the defensive stuff. He has three goals from five games so far this season - and one of them was a meaningless kick after the final siren against the Blues. The seven points he's kicked aren't helpful either.

I've got some sympathy for the dropped Garrick Ibbotson. I'd be throwing him forward as another attacking option - he's good overhead and has the speed to be a lead-up option. Why couldn't he have a role like what the similarly-sized James Sicily is playing at Hawthorn at the moment? Zac Dawson has some runs on the board and I've never seen him play a bad game in a big game, including finals. But it's hard to be a premiership contender with a bloke who can't have (and doesn't really want) the footy in his hands. Let's be honest here, there are a lot of players on Freo's list who won't be a part the Dockers' first flag.

Kicking:

The Dockers have one elite kick on their list in Michael Walters. Hawthorn, by my count, might have 11 playing on any given week. Stephen Hill is both an elite kicking talent and also symptomatic of Fremantle's woes in this area. On the run around the ground, he can be a genius level kick. Put two big sticks in front of him and too often he lays back and lets it slide off his foot. When you watch the Dockers warm up before a game, their kick-to-kick to leading teammates looks far too much like a limbering up exercise than serious repetition of something they'll need to execute in a game situation. Collingwood's Mason Cox hadn't seen a footy until two-and-a-half years ago but I'll tell you what, he can kick the thing. His skills are an indictment on those of the Dockers.

Decision making is the other big issue here. Right now it's woeful. Too many times players have the ball and seem content just to loft it up the line, happy to have it out of their hands. Here you go Pav, good luck with marking this, it's not my problem any more. I can promise you that's not something good sides do.

Ross Lyon's strategical approach:

Everyone knows that Ross Lyon's game plan is heavily built around stoppages. That's a throwback to his days at Sydney, as a disciple of Paul Roos. The problem is that with the changing nature of the game, stoppages aren't such a big part of it any more. The flip side to that is the Dockers have shown us already this season they can't win a shootout. Twice they have scored 100 points in a game. And twice they've lost, to the Gold Coast and North Melbourne. Everyone wants to play and win on their own terms but for Fremantle to move forward, the coach is going to have to alter his strategic approach to where the game is going and what his players are capable of.

By the way, don't read too much into to all this stuff about Lyon's summer delegation. Yes, Ross is an admirer of Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn and is clearly adopting some of his techniques when it comes to management, handling of the media and the recruitment of David Hale and Brent Guerra as assistant coaches. But there is no way he's giving ultimate responsibility for how his team plays to someone else. An assistant coach might make a suggestion about what should happen but, believe me, it's Ross who is ticking off on it.

Harmony:

Losing teams are always fragmented, there is no doubt about it. And if you're constantly the first guy out of the boat, you're going to be asking questions (at the very least in your own head). At some point, Nick Suban, Tendai Mzungu and Ibbotson are going to be wondering "why me?", especially when Barlow, Mayne and Danyle Pearce don't seem to be in the gun.

How well Freo can manage those questions will help determine whether this season becomes one of positive rebuilding and development (pending on the availability/arrival of Harley Bennell, Cale Hooker and Jess Hogan) or an absolute basket case.

Looking through the fixtures, there is no way Fremantle can beat Adelaide this week and I'd be tipping them to lose to GWS and Hawthorn in the weeks that follow.

They get a winnable game against Richmond at home after that but without Fyfe, Johnson and Sandilands, even that becomes a big ask. If they lose to the Tigers, the same club that started 9-0 last season will be 0-9 to begin 2016.

Unbelievable in some respects. But footy is a funny game.

Hero of the week:

Paul Puopolo followed in the footsteps of Caleb Daniel by showing that the small man can still be the biggest influence on an AFL game. He was brilliant on Friday night and all but won that game for Hawthorn off his own boot - kicking two of the last three goals and having a hand in another from Cyril Rioli.

Goat of the week:

Sure, everyone gets frustrated by losses but I have no idea what Alex Rance thought he was doing when he whacked Jack Watts in the back of the head. Follows on from Scott Lycett in the "incredibly stupid" stakes from a player Richmond can sorely afford to be without.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm:

The West Coast Eagles' last five away games are now a draw against the Gold Coast, a loss to Adelaide, two heavy defeats to Hawthorn and a convincing defeat at the hands of Sydney. The club won't publicly admit it's an issue but there is one thing I can assure them of, nobody ever won an AFL premiership at Domain Stadium.

Brad Hardie will pen his weekly AFL column for WAtoday each Tuesday morning. You can also hear him on Radio 6PR Sports Today with Karl Langdon on weeknights from 6pm to 8pm