Fremantle midfielder Caleb Serong believes the group will be playing with an added sense of motivation ahead of the crucial clash with Melbourne in the Club's annual Starlight Purple Haze Game, proudly presented by South32.

Coming off the back of a disappointing 13-point loss to the Hawks in round 18 that saw the Club drop out of the top four, Serong declared the added motivation for the game would give the team a valuable boost.

“We had a few guys speak up this morning in the meetings around the perspective you gain this week and how grateful we are to be in this position,” Serong said at his Monday media conference from Perth Children's Hospital.

“The whole week getting the kids down for a main training session on Thursday and then captains run, seeing them run around and getting to put a smile on their faces and brighten their day up is so powerful for everyone involved.

“It does give you a bit of extra motivation and a boost for the weekend.”

Reflecting on the round 18 loss, Serong said the finals-like intensity would prove a valuable learning tool for the Club as the battle for the top eight tightens with six games of the home and away season remaining.

“It was a big-time arm wrestle throughout the entire game, the pressure was hot, the contest was through the roof, and it felt like it was a finals-like game,” Serong said.

“The intensity caused a lot of mistakes but those are the games we want to play in. It felt like neither team could get a lot of momentum or a lot of ascendancy in the game.

“That is the beauty of games like that. We felt like we embraced it for the most part but in the end, their execution got us.”

“Each line, mids, forwards and backs each probably had something that let us down on the day and when you have all three lines doing that it probably doesn’t give you the best chance to win.

“We will look at it like a missed opportunity, but the competition is so tight and so close that you’ve got to turn it around pretty quick and look to this week which is another massive game for us.

Despite comprehensively beating the Demons by 92 points in round 12 where four players from Fremantle’s midfield unit (Serong, Hayden Young, Jaeger O’Meara and Andrew Brayshaw) gathered 25 disposals or more, Serong said the group would not rely on previous meetings to determine the outcome of this weekend clash.

"As a midfield group we’ve got a few things we are working on at the moment around opposition teams trying to take things away from us, trying to throw a few different things at us and trying to mess around with it a little bit,” Serong said.

“We’re continuing to grow and no doubt that we will come out the other side a better midfield group and a better team as a whole.”