Geelong have opened their AFL season with a 42-point win over the Fremantle Dockers at Domain Stadium.

Patrick Dangerfield (24 disposals, nine tackles, three goals) and Joel Selwood (28 touches) picked up where they left off last season, helping power Geelong to the 18.7 (115) to 10.13 (73) win

New Freo Dockers skipper Nat Fyfe (28 disposals, one goal) and ruckman Aaron Sandilands (48 hit-outs) tried their best to lift Fremantle, but poor turnovers hurt the home side.

The much-hyped match-up between Fyfe and Dangerfield started off as a fizzer.

The two Brownlow medallists hardly crossed paths in the opening term, tallying just 11 possessions between them.

Dangerfield had only four possessions for the term, but he took a big grab up forward and duly converted to help give his side a 17-point lead at quarter-time.

The Cats blew the game open in the second term as their lead stretched to 39 points.

A series of mistakes in defence cost the Freo Dockers dearly.

Veteran defender Michael Johnson's kick-in didn't clear the man on the mark, with Hawkins guzzling up the goal.

And a Cam Sutcliffe turnover in defence gifted Daniel Menzel a goal.

Geelong maintained their dominance in the second half, with only some dead-time goals to Fremantle avoiding a bigger margin.

Speaking post-match, Freo coach Ross Lyon refused to accept skill errors for the defeat, instead blaming himself for not preparing his side for Geelong's "mechanisms" of pushing into the Freo Dockers' forward line and hurting them on transition.

"They (turnovers) happened early and they are not ideal. But that wasn’t the issue," Lyon said.

"We could have had those and won the game if we had have fixed those things (mechanisms) I spoke about.

"So I walk out of here with a clear direction of what I need to coach and deliver in the review and the players know that."

FREMANTLE    2.2    4.6     6.9     10.13 (73)
GEELONG        5.1    11.3   14.3   18.7 (115)

GOALS
Fremantle: Langdon, Suban, Neale, S.Hill, Fyfe, Walters, B.Hill, McCarthy, Blakely, Pearce
Geelong: Hawkins 3, McCarthy 3, Dangerfield 3, Motlop 3, Menzel 2, Murdoch, Tuohy, Duncan, Cockatoo

BEST 
Fremantle: S.Hill, Spurr, Fyfe, Mundy, Sandilands, Langdon, Ibbotson
Geelong: Dangerfield, Duncan, Selwood, Hawkins, McCarthy, Henderson

INJURIES 
Fremantle: Nil
Geelong: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Dalgleish, Meredith, Williamson

Official crowd: 34,638 at Domain Stadium