While declining to concede that Saturday's opening round encounter with Collingwood was lost at the selection table, Fremantle coach Mark Harvey has forecast an injection of youth for next week's clash with Hawthorn at Subiaco.

The Dockers overlooked youngsters such as Garrick Ibbotson and the club's top selection at last November's AFL Draft, Rhys Palmer, both of whom were emergencies for the Magpies clash, for an experienced line-up on Saturday that did not include a single player aged 21 or under.

A disappointed Harvey agreed his team, which stayed with the Pies for three quarters before being overrun in the final term to lose by 26 points, appeared tired towards the finish in the warm conditions.

"We did (look tired), we looked to be off our legs a little bit … so there's a couple of things we've got to look at," Harvey said.

Harvey promised that changes would be made at the selection table next week to discover 'what a young player can bring to the team'.

"It's always an issue about finding the right balance," he said.

"You have right across the board a number of teams that are playing younger players in Round 1."

"That's when you do it, but we'll have a look at a couple of different positions, assess the tape and we'll work it out from there."

Harvey praised former skipper Peter Bell as 'one of our better players' but, asked whether there was room in the line-up for Bell along with veteran trio Matthew Carr, Mark Johnson and Shaun McManus, the coach said, "to judge them on one performance is harsh".

"We'll sit back and work it out over the next couple of weeks … it's not an easy campaign."

Harvey singled out his forwards for criticism, however, and agreed that Chris Tarrant, who managed just six touches and one behind against his former team, needs to find form quickly.

"He just couldn't get into it today," the coach said of Tarrant.

"Our forwards need to top it off - they had supply today."

On a positive note, Harvey said he believes Collingwood was made to earn the four points and he reserved some praise full-back Antoni Grover's efforts on the Pies' match-winner, Anthony Rocca.

"Rocca kicked six, but I thought it was a terrific battle and in the end it would have been the pressure from the inside 50s that they had going to Rocca that made Grover's job more difficult than it was," he said.

"The team battled hard today and Collingwood had to work to their limit to win and that's a credit to out players."