FREMANTLE cannot guarantee veteran recruit Mark Johnson a place in its team for the round-one blockbuster against Collingwood at the MCG on March 22.

But the soon-to-be 30-year-old, taken with the 55th selection overall in last year's national draft, seems certain to be granted another opportunity to press his claims this weekend despite Fremantle forecasting more than a dozen changes for its NAB Regional Challenge clash with Port Adelaide.

The Dockers, beaten by Adelaide and the Kangaroos in the past fortnight, will recall several of their premier performers, including captain Matthew Pavlich and No. 1 ruckman Aaron Sandilands, in a bid to establish some momentum before the season opener.

Free to play against the Power at Noarlunga is feisty defender Heath Black, who was yesterday fined $900 for using abusive language to field umpire Stephen McBurney during the last quarter of Saturday night's loss to the Kangaroos.

Assistant coach Peter German said Johnson, thrown a lifeline by coach Mark Harvey after having played 194 games over nine seasons with Essendon, hadn't yet sealed his spot in the team.

Johnson sparkled in an intra-club match last month, but has been reasonably quiet in the following three weeks, including the Dockers' convincing NAB Cup win against West Coast.

"He's finding his feet," German said. "It's pretty unfair if you start actually judging players on one, two or three weeks of any sort of performance. In football today, it's really important to know your teammates and know them well and know the little things about them.

"We've also played him in positions that are foreign to him. There's still going to be plenty of upside to him. We're going to find out in the next couple of weeks (whether he's in the best 22). I'm not sure who's going to play in round one and this week's pretty important. I think players will now start playing for their spots."

Black's abuse of an umpire again ensured the spotlight focused on Fremantle's disciplinary record, an area Harvey has worked overtime to address since he assumed control.

No club had more reports than Fremantle in 2007, Dockers facing 26 charges, 24 of which were upheld.

German said Black, and all of the playing group, were aware of the need to tighten up in the disciplinary stakes.

"It's undisciplined and it's what we want to eradicate," he said.

German said Fremantle was not concerned with its past two defeats, but said improvement was expected this weekend.

WEST AUSTRALIAN