GEELONG recorded a 78-point victory against Fremantle to open their season in style at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Chris Scott's post game press conference, presented by Morris.

Chris Scott on the performance…

It is always hard to know what to expect with your first game. It’s hard to know what to expect from the opposition. We were really confident that they were going to be a real serious threat. They have a style of game that means if you’re a little bit off, they can really put you to the sword and they have some real quality around the ball.

So, there are a number of things beyond just the result that we were happy with, but I thought our ability to make it a bit harder for them to play their game with our pressure around the ball was right up there with the most impressive bits.

Chris Scott on Mitch Knevitt’s performance...

He has had a great preseason and it’s a good example of a player that trained his way into the team. He really deserved the chance to play, and it was good to see him play well off the back of all that work.

We really liked the last quarter with Mitch Knevitt and Jhye Clark in there together. It wasn’t as if it was easy, the game was on the line, and they needed to step up and we thought they did.

Chris Scott on Bailey Smith's club debut...

It was what we had in mind when we brought him in.

I think I've tried to temper expectations a little bit, even with him, not because we didn't think he could play the way he did, we always thought that was a strong possibility, but it was just (that) we've got a bigger focus, a longer-term focus.

He's going to have his moments after missing a year of footy, but we're much more focused on what he's going to be over a 10-to-15-year period than this game of next game.

Chris Scott on the outstanding contributions across the board...

Some of our best players are stars of the game and they are towards the latter part of their career, but we are getting a sense that we don’t rely on them maybe in the way we once did.

We thought Sam De Koning was outstanding today. We loved his game. We loved Shannon Neale’s game. It was really good for us to have Connor O’Sullivan in the team and that’s in addition to the guys that are second or third year, players like Lawson Humphries and Ollie Dempsey and those guys. So, we think it is shifting a little bit but the very best teams and if you want to compete with them, if you’re relying on four players, you’re in a bit of trouble.

Chris Scott on Shannon Neale's role...

We are an organisation that shapes itself around its people and the forwards are a good example of that. Now I am not saying Shannon Neale is better than Tom Hawkins but he is different and so we have adjusted a little bit to suit what Shannon can do as a 203cm athlete, compared to how we might have gone about it when Tom was in the forward line.

Chris Scott on the calm and consistent head of Jack Henry…

There are a few guys down there together for a while now. Lawson Humphries is relatively new, Jake Kolodjashnij comes back into that team, Blicavs and De Koning have been around for a while, but I think it’s a good observation.

Jack would be as any of them, the mainstay of that group. He’s a bit different to his brother, the forward up the other end, not in a bad way they are just different.

Chris Scott on Patrick Dangerfield…

We thought he was influential as a forward for the whole game, but he was pretty handy in the centre bounces and in the middle later in the game. It is not the last time I will say it, it’s nice to have him in the team.