Fremantle's troubled Harley Bennell faces an uphill battle to salvage his AFL career, Dockers captain Nat Fyfe says.
But Fyfe says he will continue to support Bennell after the Dockers had sanctioned the midfielder over a nightclub brawl.
Fremantle last week sent Bennell to train at their WAFL-aligned club for at least eight weeks, and fined him $15,000 - a third of which was suspended.
The sanctions came after Bennell was involved in a scuffle at a Perth nightclub, and for drinking excessively the day before a training session.
"Initially, it's disappointing for Harley - it's disappointing for our club," Fyfe told reporters on Wednesday in Perth.
"As a player and (from a ) leader's standpoint, we're here to support Harley.
"We want to see him back playing for our footy club.
"But he has acted his way out at the moment and he will go away and really fight for his career."
The Dockers expect Bennell to seek counselling to address off-field issues which have long plagued the 25-year-old.
"It has been outlined already that he just needs to get himself physically and mentally in a space to be able to come back and perform," Fyfe said.
Bennell has entered the last season of a three-year contract with Fremantle, after moving from Gold Coast.
Persistent calf injuries have hampered Bennell, who has played only two AFL games for the Dockers - their final two games of last season.
The Dockers have previously carpeted Bennell: last year, they ordered him to undergo counselling and fined him $10,000 - half of which was suspended - after bizarre behaviour while watching a WAFL game.
The 24-year-old interrupted the three quarter-time huddle of a match involving the Dockers' WAFL-affiliate Peel Thunder to speak to his cousin Traye Bennell.
And in April last year, Bennell was ejected from a Gold Coast-bound flight before it departed because he was intoxicated.
The incidents followed a chequered stint with the Suns for Bennell, who was drafted with the second pick at the 2010 national draft.
In May 2015, the Suns dropped Bennell from their team after he drank alcohol after a game, breaking a team rule.
And in July 2015, pictures of Bennell allegedly preparing to snort an illicit substance were published.
The Suns traded Bennell after he was involved in a drunken altercation in September 2015 on the Gold Coast.
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