Nothin’ Suss about the Cats

Nothin’ Suss about the Cats

GuyWhoLikesSport

No legit, nothin’ suss.

I’m not talking about the Chris Scott sized hole at Morris Finance

I’m not even talking about Bailey Smith’s close personal ties with Cotton On.

I’m talking about the way that Geelong plays.

The Geelong metamorphosis from the 2020 control team that was consistently beaten by a chaotic Richmond dynasty, to the 2025 Cats that are as chaotic as any team in the AFL has been remarkable.

Geelong lent into a propulsive game style last year, leading the league in metres gained and ground ball gets but sitting 13th in marks and 12th in disposals.

They surged the ball forward at every opportunity and, as soon as the ball was in dispute, the midfielders cheated forward and abandoned defensive responsibility.

This did two things. Firstly, they always had an outnumber at the next contest and could keep moving the ball forward. Secondly, if the ball turned over, they had men already forward to defend high up the ground and force high turnover.

It worked well. They were fifth in scores from turnover, sixth from the forward half, and third in scoring.

This year, with the addition of Bailey Smith, they’re at Tristan Thompson levels of cheating.

Smith was generally exceptional in his Geelong debut with 32 disposals and 12 score involvements, but there was one passage of play which showed how valuable Smith can be.

With 11:25 in the second quarter, it was 46-15.

From a boundary throw in Mark O’Connor won the clearance and dribbled it forward. Smith was at the throw in and screamed forward without even considering his direct opponent.

Dangerfield led his opponent to the ball and plucked it with one paw, then handballed it backwards to Ollie Dempsey who handballed it 15m forward to Bailey Smith who hadn’t stopped running.

The handball was behind Smith, but he was so far ahead of his opponent that he could stop for 5 seconds and still had time to get it onto Mark Blicavs who was the ruckman at the throw-in and had also cheated forward.

Blicavs kicked it inside 50 in Gryan Miers’ general direction. Miers won and looked in-board to Max Holmes who had also burned his man drifting inside 50 for a shot and goal to make it 52-14.

That happened the whole game.

Geelong cheated forward expecting their guys to win contests and scored constantly over the top of a dismal Fremantle.

They did that all while remaining defensively responsible. It’s prime Mike Tyson-y with how they can be so aggressive but still so sound defensively.

They’re that sound, in part because constantly manage to get Tom Stewart loose. Against Fremantle, part of it was Longmuir’s unwillingness to commit anyone ahead of the ball to play on Stewart, but it doesn’t change the fact that Stewart had eight intercepts, 11 marks and none of them was contested.

More than just the hyper-aggressive Chris Scott game style, it’s notable how Geelong have prioritised running power.

Geelong is a White Lotus football club. They always have the same spirits, they just bring them in new forms.

In this era of the Cats, the new forms are better runners than the originals.

Bailey Smith and Ollie Dempsey have replaced Isaac Smith and Mitch Duncan

Sam De Koning in reality, is what Rhys Stanley was in theory, as well as the second coming of Mark Blicavs.

Max Holmes is the new Dangerfield.

Up forward, second to Cameron is the bouncy Shannon Neale replacing the ground bound Tom Hawkins, while Dangerfield is the best possible version of Gary Rohan.

Even Lawson Humphries is evolutionary Tom Stewart with the ball.

They’ve injected juice all over the ground. They feel incredibly fast.

Against Fremantle, the speed showed. Against one of footy’s most dominant control teams, Geelong kicked 60 points from the forward half and 88 off turnover.

Those numbers would have been Freo’s worst and second worst games in those stats last year, respectively.

Geelong abused Fremantle’s strengths.

The final point, and what makes Chris Scott so good, is that they have a Plan B.

There’s a lot of coaches, one that works at Princes Park in particular, who don’t have that.

In the third quarter, Freo got some control of the game and essentially didn’t allow the ball to be in dispute.

Khloe was home. Tristan couldn’t go out.

They were down just 11 at ¾ time.

In response, Geelong took their ball and went home.

In the first 10 minutes of the final term, Geelong took uncontested mark after uncontested mark and stretched Fremantle’s defence with switches and short passes, tiring the Dockers out and sapping any momentum.

They pivoted in-game.

That ball control, as well as another hope-shattering Shannon Neale mark on the wing led to a Tom Atkins goal at the eight-minute mark of the final term.

Geelong turned the jets back on and kicked another nine goals that quarter.

They’re my pick to win the flag.

 

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