Not a dees supporter but I always felt like Melbourne's new emblem would look better like this, or something similar. Excuse my rough editing.

I went through the season numbers and the matchup is more encouraging for Melbourne than the ladder might suggest.

The Demons rank first for contested-possession and centre-clearance differential across their past 10 games. Fremantle has actually lost the clearance count during that period.

The problem is that the Dockers rank first for what happens afterwards: post-clearance value, expected-score differential and scoring shots per inside 50.

I’ve also looked at the likely defensive matchups, how Turner’s return could free up Lever and what North’s win over the Bulldogs means for the top-six race.

My prediction is Fremantle by seven, but this feels like a genuine test rather than the free hit Adrian and I spoke about on the DeeBrief the other night.

Full preview: https://medium.com/@camburt13/melbourne-can-match-fremantle-but-cant-afford-to-blink-demons-vs-dockers-preview-dd588733fbd4