FREMANTLE coach Ross Lyon learnt plenty from Paul Roos during their time at the Sydney Swans.

Now it's Melbourne coach Roos who has commandeered Lyon's "anywhere, anytime" mantra, urging his players to strive for the Dockers' consistency.

"They're a benchmark side that's hard to play anywhere," Roos said of the Dockers, who will aim for a seventh straight win when they tackle the Demons in Darwin on Saturday night.

"What we're trying to do is what Freo have done - represent a style of footy where it doesn't matter the size of the oval, the conditions or where you're playing.

"We need to play the same style of footy every week."

Roos faced off against protege John Longmire and the Swans earlier this year, saying at the time that as a coach there was little sentiment on such occasions.

Roos said matching up against Lyon, who was an assistant coach at the Swans before joining St Kilda, would also be business as usual.

"I know him as a mate," Roos said.

"We talk a fair bit about general footy stuff but he doesn't tell me too much about the Dockers.

"I'm sure I'll speak to him at some point this week, but there won't be a lot of dialogue about the game."

When asked how he would combat Lyon's "strangling" approach, Roos became a touch defensive.

"A lot gets said about the low-scoring games (Fremantle play in)," Roos said.

"But what Ross tries to do is pretty much what most of the better teams do - when we win the ball they're going to try and get it back off us really quickly.

"You're going to get tackled. There's a lot of pressure. That's the way footy should be played.

"Our challenge is to do what they do really, really well."

Roos' Swans were famously labelled ugly ducklings in 2005 by then AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and proceeded to win their first premiership in 72 years.