FREMANTLE has shored-up its ruck stocks with veteran Aaron Sandilands and protégé Sean Darcy signing contract extensions. 

Sandilands, who turns 35 in December, has put pen to paper on a one-year deal which will extend his illustrious career into a 16th season, while 2016 draftee Darcy has re-signed until 2020.

Sandilands is still arguably the Dockers' most influential player and has been sorely missed during the club's three-game losing run due to an inflamed hamstring tendon, but has no doubt he can continue to contribute in 2018.

"I haven't been able to be out there for the past couple of weeks, but other than that my body is feeling really good. I'm very happy to be here for another 12 months," the 211cm giant said.

"I was pretty confident that I would be able to get through another season and contribute strongly.

"It was an easy decision as I continue to love playing the game and I still feel like I can contribute to the side.

"Freo is a great club to be at. When you walk through these doors you walk out a better person. I owe a fair bit to the footy club."

Sandilands is averaging nearly 46 hit-outs and 14.6 taps to advantage – both League-best statistics – and the four-time All Australian would be in contention to claim his third Doig Medal despite his injury lay-off.

He has taken Darcy under his wing since the raw 111kg Geelong Falcons product arrived at Freo.

Darcy has re-signed for two more years and has been pushing for a debut in Sandilands' injury-enforced absence after an impressive WAFL season. He is averaging almost 30 hit-outs per game.

The bullocking 19-year-old, who lived with Sandilands when he first moved to Perth, has won 49 and 42 hit-outs in his past two matches for Peel and is improving his fitness.

"It’s a big boost in confidence knowing that Freo's wanting to stick with me, so I was really happy when they told me they wanted to sign me on," Darcy said.

"There's been a lot of learning - and learning really quickly - but you get used to it. You've got to adjust pretty quickly but once you’re used to it you can track along all right.

"I've found that there's as much physical work as there is mentally. You learn a lot about the game, whether it's about running patterns on the track or in the gym doing weights."