Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams says the club's focus on development, rather than pre-match news Matthew Pavlich wouldn't play, may have attributed to the Power's disappointing first quarter at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.
The home side lacked urgency and all but lost the contest in the opening stanza with the Dockers kicking six unanswered goals.
Defender Troy Chaplin, who spoke in a post-match radio interview, thought the team may have subconsciously taken it easy after hearing Pavlich was out with a knee injury.
But Williams disagreed.
"There wasn't any discussion about it in the rooms. The build-up before the game was fine …you could hear the noise and enthusiasm similar to what it was last week," he said.
Williams said the use of Fabian Deluca in the ruck and the absence of Chad Cornes opened up the contest for the visitors.
Deluca collected just one handball and three hit-outs during a poor first term.
"Strategically we put Fabian in the ruck and without Chad and Brogs and those sort of people around the ball and their energy and enthusiasm, maybe that contributed to it," Williams said.
"I'm going to give Fabian a few games to prove that he can do something. It's important for us as a club and developing our list that he has to play."
Williams also blamed the weather for the Power's sluggish start.
"People have to realise it was a significant wind (advantage) and you could see they struggled to score in the second quarter as well," he said.
"If we had won the toss and gone that way we might have got a different result straight away."
But Williams said he couldn't explain why Fremantle had a greater desire to win.
"They wanted that win more than us, I'm not exactly sure why. I thought we gave our players an opportunity to show something so they could stamp their name and position for next year. But certainly there's a lot of undecided positions following today's result," he said.
"You've just got to go down that path and that's exactly what we are going down. It does say to me that players out of contract at other clubs, we'd be really keen to talk to them pretty soon."
Meanwhile the Power appears to have lost interest in former player Josh Carr after Williams dismissed any link with the 2004 premiership player.
In the past Williams said he would consider taking Carr back if he was looking for a new club.
"I haven't spoken to Josh for three years I reckon so I'm not sure what he's doing with his life but he's done a good job over there," he said.
Fremantle coach Mark Harvey said he thought Carr would continue his career with the Dockers.
"I spoke to Choco before the game and it's not on the cards," he said.
"I don't see any sense in leaving a club and then going back to the same club where you came from."