The Dockers kick off their 2026 AFL campaign on Saturday, heading over to Geelong this week to face the Cats at GMHBA Stadium.

Freo played this same fixture in round 1 of last year, losing the match by 78 points and this time hoping to produce a better result.

SportFM spoke to Dockers’ utility Corey Wagner this morning to get the latest on how their preseason has tracked.

“This preseason, it’s probably the hardest mentally I’ve ever had it. We trained hard on the track but then we really pushed it in the gym this year, the PB’s have gone through the roof,” he said.

“You really needed that weekend off and we got the weekends off this year. Usually we did the Saturday hills but because we congested the whole week with gym, meetings and big days on the track it’s already got to you by the end.”

With plenty of takeaways from last year’s round 1 performance against the Cats, Fremantle are looking to get off on the right foot this season.

Despite a disappointing result for Cats fans in Opening Round, losing to the Suns by 56 points, the Dockers are confident they will bounce back.

“We’re expecting them to be a lot better than they were last week, so we’re expecting them to be at their best.”

“We hyped ourselves up a bit too much last year. It’s round 1, it is built up, but we probably went into the game thinking it was all or nothing, and by the first quarter we had spent all our energy.”

“We’ve travelled there three times now. I think we’ve lost one and won two, so we definitely know we can win there. I think we’re just going about our footy in our own way, and we know that if we play our best we’ll get over the line against any team.”

The Dockers suffered a blow after their preseason match against Adelaide, losing forward Michael Frederick to an ankle injury for the next four to six weeks, while skipper Alex Pearce is a test to play with fellow defender Brennan Cox not far behind.

Geelong are hoping to add star studded experience back into their line up in Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron, both a test for this week’s match.

The addition of Mason Cox along with the new five player interchange rule has begged plenty of questions regarding Fremantle’s ruck line up.

Adding a third tall to the midfield has created fierce competition for games in the ruck, but many are expecting all three bigs to be played amid the new rule, with Luke Jackson potentially seeing more time in the forward line or as a tall midfielder alongside another ruckman.

“He’s [Mason Cox] been a really good asset to the team, and I think he’s probably been a really good asset for Sean [Darcy] too. It’s made Sean really push himself and I’ve seen the best out of him over summer.”

Fremantle made little-to-no changes to their squad since last season, adding former Demon Judd McVee during the trade period for Pick 23 in a bid to add extra run and attack off the half back line with Jordan Clark.

Wagner says we can expect to see more of him on the wing this season, but in his role as a utility he is unsure where JL will be using him for the most part.

Freo look to get off to a strong start on Saturday afternoon, with bounce down scheduled for 1:15pm AWST.

IMAGE: Fremantle Dockers