Off a short week, and with their 2025 vanquishers awaiting them at the Gabba, you could be forgiven for thinking the Cats would have been a little flat on Thursday evening.
However, what we got was the polar opposite.
Geelong hit Brisbane with their A-Game, owning the corridor, outrunning their high-profile opponents, and employing tactical nous that left the reigning premiers chasing tail all night.
And sometimes, even giving up on that chase.
Despite a strong second quarter fightback, the Lions are lacking something at the moment, and the Cats were able to exploit it. Dayne Zorko missed the game, and the usually deep Brisbane back six suddenly looked unsure of themselves. Hugh McCluggage continued a streak of ordinary form, whilst Oisin Mullin put another notch on his belt, limiting Lachie Neale, whilst running the other way.
It was a coaching masterclass from Chris Scott that should not be glossed over. Against the wily old Chris Fagan, Scott took the points, as his Cats sealed the deal with a nine-goal second half.
Heaps to get through in this one. Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Big Statements.
I hate to say I told ya so, but… actually, I am pretty happy to say it in this instance.
It’s not often that I feel strongly enough about a result to make a prediction a week in advance, but after seeing the Cats dismantle the Pies last week, I felt as though they were cherry ripe to knock over the Lions on the road.
I wrote about it at the link below – it was for members only, so it didn’t get as much traction as I would have liked, but you know… I suppose that’s why members subscribe, right?
A POINT TO PROVE
Before each game I watch, I pencil in two players to watch a little more intensively as the contest progresses. There is no uniformity in choosing them – I just kind of look at the individual games and which players need to make a statement.
SHANNON NEALE
The last couple of times the big fella has come up against the Lions, he has been humbled. Playing opposite Harris Andrews is never easy, as the Lions’ captain tends to dictate terms, so you have to make yourself a presence and keep him honest.
It was interesting to watch the way the Cats set up for Andrews in this one – he went to Neale initially, and in response, Neale started to work up as a high half-forward, pushing out to the flanks and even up to the wing. That dragged Andrews with him and opened up the forward line for others to get to work.
Chris Fagan stopped this rot about halfway through the second quarter, and the Lions looked more balanced, as Andrews just started taking the deepest forward. That then freed up Neale to get to work, and he finished with two snags and a fair bit of influence.
I have a feeling that Shannon needed this game. He needed a win over Andrews as much for his own confidence going forward, as for the team on the day, and with a bit of tactical aid, he was able to get it.
KEIDEAN COLEMAN/JASPA FLETCHER
I originally had Hugh McCluggage in this spot, given his lacklustre start to 2026, but when I saw that Dayne Zorko was missing, I switched to these two, as the heat was going to be on them to work the footy outside 50 and create for their teammates.
They failed in this regard.
If anything, the responsibility was taken by Darcy Wilmot, who ran hard, but lacks the confidence of Zorko to bite off the tough kick. Hell, does anyone have as much confidence as Zorko to take those risky kicks into the corridor?
Coleman was disappointing, picking up 18 touches but aside from a very brief flurry, offered little in the way of creative ball use. Fletcher was pantsed by Shaun Mannagh.
Hurry back, Dayne.
NEW FACES IN FOCUS
In this section, I want to give a specific focus on players new, or at least relatively new, to the teams. Some have played elsewhere, and others are fronting up in their first season, so it is always worth keeping an eye on how they’re travelling. In addition, players returning from injury/suspension may also be included, as well as those being trialled in different roles.
CODY CURTIN
He’s combative, but it just feels like he is currently playing out of position. The problem is… I don’t actually know what position he’ll end up being in.
Great to see him register his first goal – you love to see a young bloke hit the scoreboard, but other than that moment, he really struggled to have much impact.
JACK HENRY
On paper, his game looks terrible, right? Playing forward, no scoreboard impact, and just five touches.
Nothing to write home about?
There was more to it than that. When Harris Andrews reverted to playing as the deepest defender, it became Jack Henry’s role to “put a body on him” as they’d say in basketball. This impedes Andrews’ clean run at the footy, and basically dispenses with his intercept game. It is a fine art, as too much body pressure results in a free kick for blocking, but Henry was able to do it well. Andrews was still prominent in the air in terms of spoiling (12 one-percenters) but his intercept marking was not a feature, and the pressure Henry applied even caused the big fella to put an uncontested intercept to ground at one point, as though he was waiting for the body contact from Henry.
JAMES TUNSTILL
Looked out of his depth all game. Struggled to get into the groove, made errors, and was one of the Lions’ passengers on the night.
MITCH EDWARDS
Had a big job, working opposite Sam Draper, and whilst the big Lion started well, Edwards became a factor in the second half, as he started to find a bit of his own footy around the ground.
At 20, the Cats might actually have something to work with in the ruck… finally.
THE BIG STATEMENTS
CHRIS SCOTT, TAKE A BOW
I know this is skewed by recency bias, but that was one of the more impressive tactical outings I have seen by Chris Scott during his long Geelong tenure.
From his initial matchups, to the way he had contingencies in place, we saw a rare instance where Chris Fagan was out-coached by the opposition, and so much of the credit for this win should go to the Cats’ brainstrust.
The way he was able to negate the influence of Harris Andrews was marvellous – not once, but twice. It was like landing the first punch, absorbing the counter, and then unleashing a second volley.
He continually managed to free up Tom Stewart as the loose man in defence, which was eventually countered a little too late by Conor McKenna going to him. He deployed Oisin Mullin onto Lachie Neale and hurt the dual Brownlow Medallist going the other way, and he switched Tom Atkins to half-back to match strength with Cam Rayner.
All moves worked. It was one of those nights where things clicked into place, and the opposition could not unclip them.
Everyone loves Uncle Fages, but he ran into a lethal combination of a coach that is his equal, and a team that was up for the fight in this one, and I don’t care how good a coach you are, if your team cannot match the intensity of the opposition, you’re in trouble.
THE DECLINE OF HUGH MCCLUGGAGE
In watching both Jaspa Fletcher and Keidean Coleman fail to generate the type of rebound the Lions needed, I found myself wondering whether Chris Fagan could have redeployed Hugh McCluggage from the middle of the ground to a half-back flank?
Clug had a ripper 2025 and was one of the players opposition coaches would target if they had a tagger at their disposal. However, as it stands, I don’t think you need to do that – his lack of spirit and poor defensive running are making life easier for people like Chris Scott.
McCluggage had an interrupted preseason, and if you ever needed proof that a big preseason is a requisite for every player in the league, look no further than him. I am not sure whether I am seeing things, but Clug looks less robust – like he has dropped a few kilograms over the off-season in an effort to improve his running capacity, perhaps? However, when you combine it with his preseason injury, he is starting to look as though he does not have the power to run through the midfield, to stand in tackles, or to tie up his opponents and stop their run out of traffic.
He is currently -10 for disposals per game, which should tell the story. It is a huge fall from grace from one of the prime movers behind the Brisbane premiership success, and unless he can find some footy, he is dead weight in the middle.
This is where my thoughts gravitated to as he struggled. Jaspa Fletcher is a midfielder biding his time as a half-back – could they have switched roles for a while? Could the Lions have delegated responsibility for Shaun Mannagh to Coleman, and allowed McCluggage to start going to work in a rebounding role?
It is clear something needs to happen, as Clug’s inability to find the footy is also impacting his overall game. Some of his defensive efforts were horrid, and it is no surprise that he is averaging his lowest tackle numbers since the 2020 garbage season.
Winning wallpapers over a lot of cracks, but right now, one of the foundations of the Brisbane midfield is broken. Something needs to happen to make McCluggage a threat again, and continuing to throw him into the midfield mix while he hangs his head and feels sorry for himself probably isn’t it.
WELCOME TO THE 30+5 CLUB
Can I run you through some of the names who have managed 30 disposals and five goals in a game of footy?
Of course I can – it’s my article.
Leigh Matthews (x11), Kevin Bartlett (x4), Gary Ablett Snr (x3), Greg Williams (x3).
The last player to achieve this was Isaac Heeney last season, when he notched 34 touches and five snags in Round 19.
And now, Shaun Mannagh joins the club.
What a game for the “young” man, who took out a strange award last season. 30 touches and five goals in a game simply does not come around that often. Think of it this way – Dusty never did it. Neither has Petracca or Bont.
Mannagh joins his teammates, Jeremy Cameron and Patrick Dangerfield, as one of the 33 players in the history of the league to notch those numbers.
His three goals in four minutes buried the Lions – you could see their heads drop, as he hustled and bustled Jaspa Fletcher out of position, got the separation he needed, and finished the job.
What you witnessed from Mannagh was an all-time great small forward game, worthy of the likes of Gaz Junior, or Jason Akermanis. For a bloke who has come through the ranks in the way he has, this game demonstrates not just a wonderful achievement for the player, but for the Geelong recruitment team, who gave him the chance to play at the highest level, and he has absolutely rewarded their faith.
What a game. What a three-minute blast.
THE MOMENT YOU KNEW THE LIONS WERE COOKED
Given the section above, you could be fooled into thinking that Shaun Mannagh’s assault on goal may have been the straw that broke the Lions’s back in this contest.
But I reckon it occurred just before it.
When you deploy a tagger onto a star of the game, the hope is that they niggle and harass them to the point they put them off their game. That’s the baselines, but what we’re seeing from Oisin Mullin this season is a player who is learning on the job, and starting to punish his direct opponent going the other way.
Last week, he tore Nick Daicos to shreds. Forget Daicos’ disposal numbers – they were mostly trash. Mannagh hurt the Pies going the other way, and this week, he did the same to the Lions, and in the process, you could sense him breaking Lachie Neale’s spirit in real time.
Moments before Mannagh’s barrage, Oisin Mullin was at half-back with Lachie Neale. The Cats won the footy and Mullin took off. Neale jogged after him.
I repeat… Neale JOGGED after him.
Mullin ran forward, pushed past several opposition players, to get on the end of a perfect Jezza Cameron pass and finished the play with a goal. Lachie Neale was still standing at centre half-forward.
It was a telling moment that shined a spotlight not only on the run of Mullin, but the inability, or perhaps the lack of desire from Neale, to keep up with him.
Some will argue that Neale had no hope of catching him, and that might be true, but since when has giving up the chase been the preferred option?
The Cats have made a habit of showing up star midfielders in recent weeks in terms of their defensive running. Last week, Nick Daicos was Exhibit-A. This week, Neale joins the list of those who can be exploited.
In my notes I added “Lions are done” at this point.
That was with five minutes gone in the third quarter, and came off the back of two big misses from Logan Morris. It was the type of moment that sucks the life out of a team, and you could see it in the body language of the Lions after that goal. That Mannagh then tore their heart out over the next four minutes was the kicker. He was the bomb that blew the Lions out of the water, but Oisin Mullin lit the fuse.
Neale finished with 28 touches, so he fought through the tag relatively well, but Mullin was a couple of straight kicks away from really putting the hurt on the Lions.
VINTAGE TOM STEWART, AND HIS CLASH WITH HARRIS ANDREWS
When you put a bloke with as many defensive bones in his body as a jellyfish on Tom Stewart, you know you’re in for a bad night at the office.
When Tom Stewart looked over and saw that Kai Lohmann was designated to be his responsibility in the first half, I reckon it is lucky he has that manly moustache to hide his smile, because he had to know what was about to happen.
Lohmann’s game is built on finding space and opportunism, so when he was opposed to Stewart, it became incumbent on his midfielders to find him and make Stewart accountable.
It didn’t happen, and as soon as Stewart recognised that the Lions were going to ignore Lohmann, he decided he should, as well.
The result was Stewart standing tall as the best player on the ground at halftime, and if not for an incredible, game-breaking effort from Shaun Mannagh, probably the best player on the park across the entire game.
Stewart was everywhere, picking up ten of his massive 17 intercepts in the first half, before Chris Fagan pulled a switcheroo, and threw Conor McKenna at the ageing star defender.
The damage was done, though, as Stewart was now in control of defensive fifty and reading the footy like it was a children’s book. McKenna had slightly more success, but Stewart was magnificent.
He was also involved in one of the best physical clashes you’ll see, as he took the game on from half-back, soccer-dribbling it forward in the wet. As he finally took possession, he was met with a brick wall by the name of Harris Andrews.
The two big blokes crashed into each other and hit the deck. It was a huge collision that drew the ooohs and ahhhhs from the crowd, but unlike most of these situations, both blokes took the hit, dragged themselves, and each other, to their feet, and got on with the game.
THAT, my friends, is great bloody footy, and both players should be commended for the way they went about it.
It is a reminder to supporters, and the AFL, that players are not out there to intentionally hurt each other – this is a fierce, contested game when played properly, and most players play this game with the best intentions. Sometimes, accidents happen, and they are unfortunate, but when you see players commit to the contest like this, and test each other physically… far out I love that about footy.
SOME QUICKIES
I didn’t get too much of it, but Logan Morris versus Connor O’Sullivan is a matchup I am looking forward to watching for years on end. Both of these kids will be pillars of their team over the next decade, and seeing them line up against each other was a glimpse into what is to come.
Tanner Bruhn looked a little too eager to make an impact, at points. He got a bit hungry late in the game and completely burnt Shannon Neale inside 50 to have a long shot at goal. This is something I am sure Chris Scott will address. Neale had played a very selfless role for the first half, and deserved to be rewarded. Bruhn, who has not been in the same form he was earlier in the season, definitely had the blinkers on, and needs to be a bit better than that.
Ollie Dempsey could have ended up with four or five goals in this game. It sounds strange to say, given he had 0.2 for the night, but the way he ran to position, was always an option inside 50, and completely bamboozled James Tunstill in transition, gave the Lions additional avenues to goal. Sure, he didn’t register a goal, but he was consistently available had his teammates lowered their eyes.
On the opposite wing, I reckon Levi Ashcroft had his best game as a Lion to date. With 28 touches and a goal to his name, he gave the home team plenty of run all game.
34 touches and I am only getting to Bailey Smith now?
Yeah, pretty slack of me, I know. His goals in the first half were massive, and his tandem with Max Holmes already gets a heap of column inches all over the place. It is, however, well deserved, and it was clear that nobody in maroon could run with him late in the game.
If we put aside whatever he was doing when he dropped the footy while attempting to have a shot at goal, it is tough not to admire the work of Josh Dunkley. There were a few moments where it felt like he was the difference between the Cats blowing the Lions away, and Brisbane hanging around.
Atkins versus Rayner was a ripper clash when they were matched against each other. However, when Atkins moved through the middle, I felt he added another dimension to the Geelong midfield mix, whereas Cam had a much more subdued impact when it was his turn to rotate through the guts.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was the win I saw coming last week. As much as people like to write the Cats off, they continue to thumb their nose at the competition and the AFL’s equalisation plans.
You look at the way they have built this list, and continue to do so… it is amazing.
The Lions will not lose a lot of sleep over this loss, even though I am sure Fages will have plenty to address with some players.
If I were a Geelong supporter, this might even be a game I’d watch again for pleasure. I’m not though, so I won’t. As a Hawthorn bloke, it is hard enough for me to sit there and watch this team continue to produce year after year.
Some in my position would hate them for it. I have another reaction when it comes to what Geelong continue to do, year after year.
It’s respect.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
