COLLINGWOOD 3.3 7.6 10.10 16.15 (111)

FREMANTLE 3.1 7.2 10.4 13.7 (85)

GOALS: Collingwood: Rocca 6, Didak 3, Davis 2, Thomas 2, Cloke, Lockyer, Medhurst. Fremantle: McPharlin 3, McManus 2, Bell, M Carr, Crowley, Farmer, Headland, Johnson, Mundy, Pavlich.

BEST: Collingwood: Rocca, Didak, Swan, H Shaw, Davis, R Shaw. Fremantle: McPharlin, Mundy, Bell, Headland, Sandilands, Pavlich.

INJURIES: Collingwood: Rusling (shoulder) Fremantle: Black (blurred vision).

UMPIRES: McLaren, Chamberlain, Kamolins.

CROWD: 45,383 at MCG.

SOMETIMES the debate that surrounds the lead up to a game of AFL football is soon proved to be nothing more than a load of hot air. And sometimes it's spot on. Yesterday at the MCG was definitely one of the latter occasions.

Collingwood went into this season opener against Fremantle boasting arguably the best group of young and eager players in the competition. No fewer than 10 of the Pies' 22 were aged 21 or less. And hardly bit players, either. Travis Cloke and Scott Pendlebury quinellaed the best and fairest last year. Dale Thomas ran sixth, and Harry O'Brien finished top 10.

Whatever the Magpies turned up with yesterday, it wasn't going to be a lack of youthful zest or leg speed. So when Fremantle, already with the oldest list in the AFL, announced a team featuring not a single debutant, overlooking highly rated draftee Rhys Palmer, and the likes of Garrick Ibbotson and Robert Warnock, some eyebrows were raised.

Quite rightly, as it turned out. Fremantle was far from disgraced yesterday, hanging in this contest until halfway through the final term, but the longer it went on, the greater seemed to grow the gap between these sides. It was warm out there, and it was quick. And the Dockers, frankly, looked simply too old and too slow to cope.

Fremantle had a pretty good recent record against the Pies before yesterday, winning three of the past four clashes, and similarly at this venue, where it had won five of its past seven. Perhaps that justified its investment in experience yesterday, former Essendon defender Mark Johnson the only man playing his first game for the club, at nearly 30, and with 194 games under his belt.

But wisdom of years isn't enough against a Collingwood side that never deviates from its plan, tackles fiercely, runs hard and fast, and continually gets a lift from the bubbly youthful vibrance of most of its number. The other Pies in that 21-and-under group yesterday not already mentioned were Marty Clarke, Tyson Goldsack, Chris Egan, Sean Rusling, Nathan Brown and Cameron Wood.

Clarke and Goldsack proved last year in the heat of the finals that they're more than up to the task. Egan has had a big summer, and while liable to make errors, at least won plenty of the ball yesterday. But the Pies would be quietly chuffed this morning at the latest young prodigies to roll off the production line, Brown and Wood.

Wood, the former Brisbane ruckman, more than held his own against one of the best in the business in Aaron Sandilands, helping give Josh Fraser the "chop-out" the Magpies' other genuine ruckman has badly needed.

Key defender Brown was probably better still. He was handed the massive task of curbing Docker skipper Matthew Pavlich, and did it superbly. Pavlich still finished with respectable numbers, but was never allowed to exert the sort of influence he so often does, with only one goal, and a healthy share of his 21 disposals picked up away from the danger area.

And Thomas was something of a barometer of the Magpies' afternoon, quiet early, but getting stronger the longer this game lasted.

The first two quarters had been like mirror images. In the opening term, it was Collingwood off to the fast start, Fremantle looking like it was half asleep before it gradually worked its way into proceedings. In the second, the Dockers got the jump, the Magpies caught napping before a mid-term burst of four goals out of five.

The first two goals were clinical, Alan Didak and Anthony Rocca converting from marks on the lead, Paul Medhurst adding a third after Heath Black gave away a silly 50-metre penalty. Pendlebury ran down Byron Schammer, Chris Tarrant fumbled and was duly crunched by former forward partner Rocca.

The Pies ran their interchange bench like clockwork, virtually one substitution per minute, not just the midfielders, but forwards, too.

But suddenly, Fremantle stirred. Peter Bell outbustled a much bigger man in Fraser to mark and goal. Then, on quarter-time, Johnson ducked brilliantly out of a tackle and dobbed one from 48 metres.

That momentum continued into the second term, Ryan Crowley bombing a goal from outside 50, Pavlich, well held by Brown, finally grabbing a mark on the lead and converting. The Dockers led by nine points. Now it was Collingwood's turn to surge.

Didak started it by running into an open goal, then Rocca won a free kick close in for another. When he kicked his third from a clever Didak pass, Collingwood had kicked four of the past five goals.

Fremantle would fire just one more shot for the afternoon, a brace of three goals midway through the third term somehow giving it an eight-point lead. The Magpies would promptly kick seven of the next eight, Thomas and Leon Davis starting to run amok, Rocca capitalising on it all with three final term goals.

The Magpies would win by 26 points, but in terms of the psychology of the result, the margin was a fair bit greater. For the Dockers, the worry is, if they're running out of juice in March, how are they going to be travelling come August?