Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir doesn't want his players to wallow in their own self pity and has urged his players not to "catastrophise" their current predicament.
The Dockers barely put up a whimper in last week's 53-point home loss to Carlton as they fight to keep their faint finals hopes alive.
That insipid display came just a week after Fremantle imploded in the final term of a 29-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.
The pair of defeats has left Fremantle struggling in 14th spot with a 7-9 record.
Fremantle will start as rank underdogs against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, with their victory hopes further cruelled by the unavailability of key players Brennan Cox (ankle), Hayden Young (ankle), Caleb Serong (suspension) and Michael Frederick (soreness).
But Longmuir doesn't want his players to feel sorry for themselves.
"The players are motivated," Longmuir told reporters on Thursday.
"They've been really keen this week to rectify last weekend,. Sometimes we can catastrophise in this game.
"We had a bad game against.Carlton. We're not proud of that game.
"But the week before we pushed the Bulldogs all the way and were in front in the last quarter on the road.
"And the week before (that) we beat an Essendon team that just had a really good game against Adelaide.
"So yeah, we don't want to catastrophise internally."
Longmuir said the club's leaders delivered a series of honest and frank messages during this week's team meeting.
"It was really well received," Longmuir said.
"They took that feedback on board and we trained really well yesterday. So that's what you want to see as a coach."
Fremantle are one of the youngest teams in the competition.
With youth comes inconsistency and Longmuir feels his players have become internalised at times this year when the tide has turned against them in games.
Longmuir would love to see his players become more vocal on the field during those tough periods.
"I would love players who have played a handful of games to come in and rant and rave and be really loud in those moments," Longmuir said.
"But the fact is we've got a lot of guys that probably still don't feel 100 per cent comfortable in their own skin at AFL level.
"So sometimes you're just trying to get your own game in order, you're not really worrying about - in those moments - helping other people through it.
"That's an age thing and experience thing at times. So we need to fast track that absolutely, and we'll continue to work on that."
