Fremantle has Kysaiah Pickett in its sights heading into Saturday’s MCG encounter, with coach Justin Longmuir identifying the Melbourne match-winner as a “needle mover”.

The Dockers employ full taggers sparingly, but history points to the mid-forward creating carnage if left alone.

“We have to do something with him, he’s a needle mover for them,” Longmuir said.

“Clearly, Kosi has a big impact on games and we’ve got plans in place, but we want to make sure we play our way and and keep improving on our game.

“I think it’s an important lever that we need to keep working on. And when we have done it across the course of the year, it’s been successful for us.”

Pickett’s role has changed since the Dockers trounced the Demons in round two at Optus Stadium by 48 points when he spent 64 per cent forward and the remainder of the game in the midfield.

Since then he’s been used 90 per cent midfield and 10 per cent forward.

The Dockers used a variety of opponents on Pickett in that game, with Jordan Clark spending 30 minutes on the Demon, Corey Wagner (14min), Luke Ryan (12), Shai Bolton (10) and Caleb Serong (10).

His impact was limited with 16 disposals, although he did kick a stunning second quarter goal when he crumbed cleanly and stepped through traffic to snap neatly.

Fremantle, however, does not to look back too far for a warning.

Pickett was the architect of Melbourne’s first win of 2025, a 10-point victory over Fremantle in round six, when he played mid-forward and kicked five goals, including a third term stunner when he burnt off Josh Draper.

Opponents have successfully shut down Pickett in the past fortnight, with Geelong’s Oisin Mullin limiting him to 13 disposals and a goal in 100 minutes and Gold Coast’s Touk Miller also clamping down on the Demons’ dynamo, who finished with 18 disposals and a goal in 102 minutes.

Pickett’s form has been a key to the team’s climb into sixth spot under first-year coach Steven King.

According to Champion Data, he is the 11th highest rated player in the competition in 2026 and one of just six players to average 20-plus disposals, four-plus clearances, more than a goal and over one score assist.

He is in illustrious company across that metric, joined by Sydney’s Isaac Heeney, Western Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli, Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis, Collingwood’s Nick Daicos and Gold Coast’s Christian Petracca.

When he was a Demon, Petracca in 2021 and 2023 is the only other Melbourne player to ever average these numbers.

Pickett has averaged 15.7 AFL player rating points per 100 minutes this season, but in games where he’s had attention he’s averaged just 13.4 rating points.

He was able to get away from Sydney super tagger James Jordon in round eight, but other than that the tags have all been effective.

On the flip side, the Demons effectively swung WA tagger Koltyn Tholstrup on to Fremantle midfielder Caleb Serong in round two when he was held to six first-half disposals and 16 overall.

The Dockers won the clearances in that game (34-29) but did most of their damage on turnover, with Andrew Brayshaw able to get off the leash with most of the attention on Serong.

“He’s probably done those roles a fair bit throughout the year, whether it’s in the midfield or he’s gone to halfback and done some high forwards,” Longmuir said.

“We’ll expect that and prepare for that.”