Fremantle’s Zac Dawson is confident the team can cover the absence of defensive mainstays Luke McPharlin and Paul Duffield in Sunday’s Carlton Mid Derby.

Both stars are out with calf injuries.

Dawson played on Eagle forward guns Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling when the teams last met in round 1 – a 28-point Freo win.

He expected a similar match-up this week, with inclusion Alex Silvagni likely to play on the other forward.

The former St Kilda defender said Silvagni had already proven his ability to play well in defence, citing the 2012 elimination final where he held Geelong’s James Podsiadly goalless as a prime example.

“He can take a lot of confidence out of that, and he's played an important role for us coming into the team playing forward and back this year, so I think if he does come in, he'll do his job,” Dawson said.

Dawson said West Coast’s Josh Kennedy, who is leading the Coleman Medal race, would be a very dangerous player on Sunday.

“He's probably the in-form forward of the competition at the moment,” he said.

“He's very good in the air and on the ground and he works hard for a key forward.”

But Dawson said it wasn’t just Kennedy that Freo had to be mindful of in the Eagles’ attack.

“They have a mixture of talls and smalls,” he said.

“I think their talls are quite dangerous in the air and their smalls are very dangerous on the ground, so it's a pretty potent forward line.”

The 27-year-old added that he remained an option to cover one of the resting West Coast ruckman, Dean Cox or Nic Naitanui.

“Michael Johnson has done the job on some taller players and has to play pretty tall some times, so whether he gets the job on the resting ruckman or I do, we will have to see,” Dawson said.