But what if they don't?

There is some good mail floating around Melbourne that the AFL is seriously contemplating moving from the current national draft system - which awards picks on the basis of a side's ladder position the previous season  - to a format that averages out performance over three years.

It's questionable whether the league would make the change as soon as this year. But it's not like the AFL hasn't moved the goalposts on the run before. And, if they did, it would seriously hurt Freo.

How much? Well, consider this "ladder" of team wins over the past two seasons and the first 10 games of 2016 (to reflect the draft, it's lowest number of cumulative victories first).

Brisbane Lions - 12
St Kilda - 14
Melbourne - 16
Carlton - 16
Gold Coast - 17
Essendon - 19
GWS - 25
Collingwood - 25
Western Bulldogs - 28
Adelaide - 30
Richmond - 31
Port Adelaide - 31
Fremantle - 33
West Coast - 34
Geelong - 35
North Melbourne - 36
Hawthorn - 40
Sydney - 41

That list will change as the season goes on. The Dockers will presumably move up it and GWS, Carlton and the Western Bulldogs will move down it. It's unclear how Essendon, playing with only half a team this year, would factor into the equation.

But mathematically Freo can't finish last. At "best" you think the Dockers would be seventh or eighth. Throw in a couple of quality kids engaged in Brisbane and Sydney academies (and taken out of the national draft pool) and a possible priority pick for the Lions near the top of the draft and Fremantle might possibly only have access to the 10th best junior in the country.

On one level that would throw a spanner into any Fremantle plans to rebuild with the best possible young talent.

But the other issue at stake is Jesse Hogan. If, as has been heavily suggested, Hogan wants out of Melbourne to come back home, the No. 2 draft pick is going to look a lot more enticing as trade bait to the Demons than No. 8 or 9.

An "averaged" system is better than a lottery to sort out draft order. And I think removes the threat of a historically good team having a one-year aberration - like I think Fremantle is - and ending up with top pick.

It also negates the "tanking" factor. No team is going to tank over the course of three years: it's commercial suicide and would only serve to alienate a fan base.

As it stands, I don't believe the Dockers are tanking. I think they are just out of form - both from a playing and coaching perspective.

They are yet to play anything like four quarters in a game this year. On the weekend against St Kilda the first quarter was deplorable, the second and third were much better (and looked like the breakout term they needed) and the fourth was poor again.

The good signs came from Lachie Weller, Connor Blakely, Ed Langdon and even Matt Taberner.

I've been Taberner's biggest critic but on the weekend he actually got on his bike and got the ball up the ground, then worked back into the forward-50m, where he looked dangerous. Let's just not mention that shot from the goal square which hit the post.

Surely, the Dockers beat Essendon at home this week...and maybe Brisbane on the road the weekend after.

If not, Fremantle is going to need all the help it can get. And maybe more than future versions of the AFL draft will provide.

Hero of the week:
For Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack, to get to the semi-finals of surfing's Fiji Pro - having knocked out Tyler Wright and Stephanie Gilmore along the way - was just unbelievable.

Goats of the week:
Has to be Daniel Ricciardo's pit crew. Lord knows what they were doing in Monaco and little wonder the WA F1 star wasn't impressed. Inexcusable for them to be caught unprepared given they knew he was coming in for a tyre change. Would have been funny if it wasn't so sad...

Things that make you go hmmmmmm:
Looking at the performances of Fremantle, Brisbane and Gold Coast, it's very easy to say the players aren't getting the job done and are down-on-form. But the coaches shouldn't escape scrutiny either. Isn't it just as easy for a coach to be off the ball as it is a player?

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