GEELONG launched its 2025 AFL season with a dominant 78-point victory against Fremantle at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.

The Cats were challenged by the Dockers in the third term after a scintillating start by the home team, but a 10-goal final term saw Geelong record a 23.9 (147) to 10.9 (69) victory.

CATS v DOCKERS Full match coverage and stats

The weather wasn’t the only thing that was hot with the Cats' pressure affording no time and space for the opposition in the opening term.

Geelong recorded 32 first-quarter tackles, doubling the AFL’s average and that was the catalyst for a dominant start at GMHBA Stadium.

Fresh from being presented his guernsey from Jimmy Bartel in the room’s pre-game, it didn’t take long for club debutant Bailey Smith to have an impact.

He drove the Cats inside 50 for the opening goal of the game, putting it out in the path of Gryan Miers to run onto, and the Grovedale local did the rest with a superb finish on his right from the boundary line.

Andrew Brayshaw responded with a running finish of his own. The Dockers were out on the counter again moments later before Mark Blicavs got his fist to the footy to spoil Fremantle’s attacking foray.

That intercept proved crucial leading to a Jack Bowes goal at the very next passage of play to help the Cats to an early seven-point lead.  

Bowes was involved in the Cats' third major shrugging off a tackle before handballing it to Ollie Henry, who extended Geelong’s lead to 14 points after 18 minutes.

Geelong’s pressure was elite in the opening term with Tyson Stengle leading all comers with five first-quarter tackles. It was his pressure that saw the Cats force a turnover and it was Ollie Dempsey who benefitted with a karate kick finish on the goal line to extend the Cats' lead to 20 points.

Skipper Patrick Dangerfield capped off a dominant start by Geelong to hand the Cats a 27-point lead at quarter-time.

Geelong carried the momentum into the second quarter with back-to-back goals from Brad Close and Max Holmes extending the Cats advantage.

Fremantle ended Geelong’s run of six consecutive goals with a nice finish from Josh Treacy across his body from the pocket to cut the Cats' lead to 31 points.

A clever kick inside 50 from Miers hit a running Holmes, who kicked his second major for the quarter to extend the Cats' advantage back out to 37 points.

After setting the tone with his elite tackling pressure, Stengle was rewarded kicking the next two majors, both from set shots.

Jeremy Cameron became Geelong’s ninth goalkicker of the game when he went back with the flight to mark at the top of the square.

Geelong increased their advantage to 54-points at half time.

Michael Frederick, who kicked a goal just before half time, kicked the opening goal of the third term as the Dockers started to swing the momentum their way.

Bailey Banfield quickly added another to reduce Geelong’s advantage to 42 points.

A sweeping handball from Mitch Knevitt and a clever kick from Brad Close to the leading Dempsey helped the Cats halt the Dockers' run of three consecutive goals.

The next five minutes belonged to Docker first-gamer Murphy Reid who kicked four goals to cut Geelong’s lead to 22 points.

Fremantle had all the momentum and appeared to have kicked another, but Jack Henry got a crucial fist in on the goal-line to leave the Cats leading by 21-points with a quarter to play.

It took seven minutes before the first goal came in the final term through Tom Atkins after Shannon Neale found him in space after taking a strong contested mark.

It was a big couple of minutes for Neale with the key forward marking inside 50 again, but this time going back and finishing off his work to extend the Cats' lead to 33-points.

At the opposite end of the ground, Geelong’s defensive duo of Tom Stewart and Jack Henry were starting to assert their dominance in the air.

An intercept mark from Geelong’s vice-captain resulting in a Stengle goal, his third of the afternoon to give the Cats a 41-point lead.

Geelong, Geelong, Geelong started to echo around the ground as the home crowd of 25,372 came to voice.

The GMHBA Stadium crowd witnessed Jeremy Cameron kick his 650th career goal, before Smith received a standing ovation after kicking his first goal as a Cat.

Geelong going on to kick 10 final quarter goals to record a 78-point Round 1 win at GMHBA Stadium.

GEELONG                    5.4    12.4    13.6   23.9 (147)
FREMANTLE                1.1    3.4      9.9     10.9 (69)
 
GOALS 
Geelong: Cameron 4, Stengle 3, O.Henry 3, Holmes 2, Dangerfield 2, Dempsey 2, Miers, Bowes, Close, Atkins, Neale, Smith, De Koning
Fremantle: Reid 4, Frederick 2, Brayshaw, Treacy, Banfield, Cox
 
BEST 
Geelong: Smith, Dangerfield, Humphries, De Koning, Stengle, Holmes
Fremantle: Johnson, Reid, Brayshaw, O'Meara
 
INJURIES 
Geelong: TBC
Fremantle: Switkowski (groin)
 
SUBSTITUTES 
Geelong: Jhye Clark (replaced Mark O'Connor in the final term)
Fremantle: Heath Chapman (replaced Sam Switkowski in the third term)
 
Crowd: 25,372 at GMHBA Stadium