Fremantle have sneaked into fifth spot on the AFL ladder on the back of a 35-point win over Carlton at Domain Stadium on Sunday.

The Dockers ran away from an undermanned Blues in the second half, kicking 12 goals to three after quarter-time.

But not getting the four premiership points from their visit to Perth may be the least of the Blues worries.

Carlton could be without defender Sam Rowe for an extended period of time after he left the ground in the opening quarter with a knee injury.

He managed to return to the ground after the initial injury was sustained when Nat Fyfe fell over his right leg while he was kicking. The early diagnosis by the Blues medical staff was clearly wrong though.

Rowe was off the ground for about 15 minutes and his heavily-strapped right knee collapsed under him at the first contest he went to after returning to the field, without any contact from an opposition Dockers. He will undergo scans on Monday.

When Dale Thomas failed to take the field after half-time because of blurred vision, the chances of a Blues victory looked remote. Thomas was the victim of friendly fire, copping a head knock from teammate Alex Silvagni.

At that stage, the Blues were still hanging on to a two-point lead, having dominated the early stages of the game, but the Dockers had the momentum. It was a big swing in momentum too. Carlton had the first 12 inside 50s of the game.

Marc Murphy set the tone, and was clearly not affected by the attention during the week that followed the St Kilda game. He had nine possessions in the opening term and had 17 at half-time.

His goal while being tackled by several Dockers players in the opening quarter to give the Blues a 20-point lead, was all class.

Two minutes later, Levi Casboult put the visitors 28 points up, but they should have been much further in front.

The Blues had kicked 4.4 before Fremantle even looked like scoring. They had 41 more disposals than the Dockers in the opening quarter, 14 more contested, and took 40 marks to nine for the term.

Fremantle didn't handle the early wet conditions well, while we've seen the Blues excel in the wet in earlier games against Essendon and Collingwood.

Unfortunately for Carlton, the rain stopped just before quarter time. And the Dockers responded.

The lead was pulled back to 20 points by the first break and to just two by half-time.

Last week, David Mundy was the hero for Fremantle when he kicked the winning goal against Richmond after the siren.

On Sunday, his influence was notable well before that.

He dominated in the middle in that second term as the Dockers worked their way back into the game. Despite having big Aaron Sandilands in the middle, the Blues led clearances 10-6 at quarter-time. But on the back of Mundy's work in the second term, the Dockers led that stat 14-8 at the main break.

The third term of an AFL game is known as the premiership quarter and in the past six games the Dockers have made it their own, not losing one. They have outscored their opposition 27.22 to 9.18 in third terms in that time.

They turned a two points half-time deficit into a 22-point lead in that time on Sunday, on the back of three goals from Michael Walters.

The exciting forward-come-midfielder hadn't scored a goal in four weeks prior to this weekend, although he has spent a lot of time further up the ground.

He finished with just the three, but had 27 touches to go with them.

Lachie Neale continued his outstanding season too, with 37 touches, his fourth game this season of 30 possessions or more.

Mundy finished with 28 and nine clearances.

While the rain fell again in the last term, there were stages of the quarter when the Blues had no one on the bench to rotate, with their own two players on the bench being ordered off with the blood rule.

The Dockers are definitely on the rise.

The win was their sixth in seven weeks since the embarrassing 15-goal smashing at the hands of Port Adelaide in round two.

Only once since then have they been outscored in a second half and that was in last week's win against Richmond.

How much they have improved? We'll know more next week when they travel back to Adelaide to take on the Crows.

Carlton will be looking to end avoid a third consecutive defeat when they play North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.