THERE was plenty for Mark Harvey not to like in Fremantle's 43-point loss to St Kilda and he hopes the team looks closely at the efforts of Rhys Palmer.

Fremantle controlled much of the first half but only managed 2.11 after the main break as St Kilda piled on 11 goals. Harvey felt his side did not work hard enough as a whole, but Palmer was an exception as picked up 30 possessions and his coach can't say enough about his first season.

"Rhys' performance does the talking and that's all you can ask. He's still going up and down the ground when you are looking for your team to get back into the game and is trying to lift us," Harvey said.

"He's a delight to watch and the team should learn a lot off him. I've seen clubs advertising for what players should win that but Rhys has had a great year and that's all I will say. I'm not going to advertise him."

Fremantle has played good football of late and this performance caught Harvey by surprise and it was the effort he saw more than the margin that he was unhappy about.

"We just allowed them to do what they wanted too easily. Whenever we looked like getting them on the counterattack there was fumbling, lack of composure and not enough understanding between one another. That led to crucial and easy mistakes," he said.

"From where we've come from in the last month and to see the side go out and perform like that was disappointing. At times our guys weren’t demanding enough on each other when St Kilda was kicking the ball around.

"They had a lot of uncontested marks and easy pathways to goal, especially after half time. We have too many guys that sit back and spectate in those circumstances."

Nick Riewoldt was superb for St Kilda and Steven Dodd had a long day at the office, but Harvey never was tempted to take Luke McPharlin from up forward to play on him as he wants to see what players like Dodd, Michael Johnson, Marcus Drum and Scott Thornton can offer on the AFL's best forwards.

"It (Dodd match up) was OK but at times it just came down too easily. Riewoldt has had a lot of shots on goal in the end but I wasn’t happy with how it came down to him, which is reflective of the lack of effort further up the field," he said.

"We have up to five guys that should be able to handle that situation without McPharlin needing to go back there. If we keep relying on the same handful of players it is going to take us a while to evolve.

"I'm trying to put it right on guys who are in situations that represent the value of the game and to see what they can do about it, which will be playing on the elite players in the competition."