TWO QUARTERS of brilliance from Nathan Fyfe has set up a commanding win for Fremantle in the season opener against Collingwood. 

Fyfe had been in some doubt leading into the game after wrenching his knee in the NAB Challenge match.

 

But he was sublime when it mattered, steering the Dockers out of choppy waters like a captain in the wheelhouse with 17 disposals and a goal across the second and third quarters.

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon agreed that Fyfe played well, but said it was a win where the plaudits could be shared equally. 

He said Stephen Hill was also instrumental in sparking the team after quarter-time.  

 

"[I] thought it was a weight of numbers performance tonight," Lyon said. "Everyone contributed."

Whether or not Fyfe did enough to earn three Brownlow Medal votes at season's end will be a point of interest late in the year, as he was subbed off just before three-quarter time as a precaution. 

Lyon spoke during the pre-season about the importance of looking forward, not back, and it was evident from late in the first quarter that his Fremantle side was focused on the here and now.

 

It absorbed early pressure before the midfield went to work on the Magpies.

Lyon praised his side's defence for its efforts early when Collingwood was winning the centre clearances but failing translating that dominance to the scoreboard.

 

"[There were] good signs early as our defence was defending really well under siege. They were really strong. It was just that we had slaughtered it coming out," Lyon said.

 

Luke McPharlin had Travis Cloke's measure, but his job was made easier because Zac Dawson and Michael Johnson helped out. 

The Dockers entered their forward 50 on 65 occasions; a number Lyon imagined would be hard to match too often and scored 116 points as a result.

 

Matt De Boer, who once again created pressure inside 50 with 10 tackles, said the team mentally rehearsed the game in their heads before arriving which made them ready for the Magpies' early onslaught.

 

"We planned for the crowd to be against us. We planned to come over here and really give great effort and put the body on the line," De Boer said.

Up forward Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters worried Collingwood, kicking five goals between them, and the Dockers' talls contested well as Fremantle spread the load with 11 goal kickers.

Lyon was not surprised Ballantyne played well as he kept working hard. 

He described his cheeky forward as mentally tough and said he had a different perspective to most when it came to Ballantyne's disappointing Grand Final performance, arguing that the small forward gave his team a chance to win with his efforts in the decider. 

And asked once again about the effect of last year's Grand Final loss on the club, Fremantle coach Ross Lyon quickly threw some reality into the conversation.

 

Wearing a black armband, Lyon said real sadness was hearing the news earlier this week that former Melbourne coach and Adelaide assistant Dean Bailey had died, aged 47.

 

Lyon, who was born just two months before Bailey, toured Ireland with him in 1984 as part of a Victorian schoolboys team.

 

"Bailey was part of that [tour of Ireland] and he lost his life to cancer and we have all been affected by it," Lyon said. "Those things tend to sober you up."

 

His comments provided a solemn end to a successful night for Fremantle, which now has a 15-day break before it plays Gold Coast at Patersons Stadium. 

 

Colin Sylvia and Clancee Pearce will play this weekend for Peel Thunder while Zac Clarke is expected to train and then play next weekend for Peel.

 

Nick Suban will be available after serving a one-week suspension incurred in last season's Grand Final.