“I think we’ve obviously got to start well. When you play away it’s a key thing. There’s obviously a loud crowd over at Fremantle so we need to start well and use that momentum.
“Start well, win the contested ball and back ourselves in,” Mackie said.
The two sides have been pretty evenly matched over their past few meetings, with the wins equally split over their last six games.
“You’ve got to run and attack. It’s not that easy because the defensive nature of Fremantle has been outstanding but I think the spread and run, which this team has showed it can do, is important,” Gullan said.
A win to the Cats would see the Dockers having lost to each of the current top four sides this season.
“Tom Hawkins or another key forward has to stand up. Because I think Luke McFarlane will be back, although he didn’t play last week. I think Zac Dawson will probably be back too.
“Attacking the game and running on the wide ground, I think that’s key,” Gullan said.
With Saturday’s game marking Fremantle captain and All-Australian Matthew Pavlich’s 300th game, the Dockers will no doubt come out firing. Given that Mackie and Pavlich were both budding footballers growing up in Adelaide, he had a few things to share about the star forward.
“We went to the same school but he was obviously a bit older and I just missed him. But there are always one or two players that everyone talks about as a junior and coming through (Pavlich was one of them).
“Everyone knew he was going to be a star and he’s turned out exactly like that, and he’s obviously a good man to go with all that.
“Matthew Pavlich has been a superstar player and I imagine they’re going to want to get up for him and so they should. But at the same time, we’ve got a lot to play for as well,” Mackie said.
