It is probably not a game you’re going to go back and watch again tomorrow. Not for highlights, anyway.
It was hard, it was tough in the clinches, and in the end, it came down to one team being able to lock the footy in their front half and make the opposition defend time and time again.
Much like the way it started, actually.
At one point in the first half, I looked at a couple of the hard nuts from either side, and asked myself a question – if there was a loose ball, and you threw Tom Atkins and Shaun Mannagh in there against Luke Pedlar and Darcy Fogarty, who would you back?
And at that point, I came to the conclusion that the Cats would win this. Sure, the 14 game winning streak at the venue may have further led me to this decision, but when push came to shove, the Geelong team was just that little bit harder for that little bit longer. It is their DNA.
This was a win for Geelong built on hard work. There were elements of class sprinkled throughout, but this was a victory steeped in the tough stuff. Bailey Smith cracked in, Mark Blicavs took advantage of a size mismatch on the wing at points, and Sam De Koning’s battle against Riley Thilthorpe had the potential to decide the contest.
It felt as though the Crows were reliant a little more on skill, and in the wet, you live or die by that. Izak Rankine reading the ball off hands, and Josh Rachele pinpointing teammates inside 50. On a dry day, yep… that’d do the trick. On a wet one, you need a few more strings to your bow.
The Cats were the team that found those extra strings.
Enough of the preamble, let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Good, Bad, and Ugly, from Kardinia Park.
The remainder of this article is for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re all in on the 2026 AFL season. Player articles, stats, awards, game coverage. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I consider it your loss as we get into the grind of the season, and you’re stuck with the stuff that’s frustrated you for years.
