Affiliated: VFA 1877-1896; VFL 1897-1989; AFL 1990-present

Club Address: Skilled Stadium, Moorabool Street, Geelong 3220 (Postal Address: P.O. Box 461, Geelong 3220, Victoria)

Home Ground: Skilled Stadium (originally known as Kardinia Park), Geelong

Formed: 1859

Colours: Navy blue and white

Emblem: Cats

Premierships: SENIORS - 1878-79-80, 1882-83-84, 1886, 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951-52, 1963, 2007 (14 total)   RESERVES - 1923-24, 1930, 1937-38, 1948, 1960, 1963-64, 1975, 1980-81-82 (13 total - record)  UNDER 19S - 1962 (1 total); VFL - 2002, 2007 (2 total)  OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - VFL Night Series 1961, 2006 (2 total); Dr. Wm. C.McClelland Trophy 1952, 1954, 1962-63, 1980-81, 1992, 2007 (8 total)

Champions of the Colony: Tom Wills 1859 & 1872; H.P. Douglas 1878; James Wilson 1880-1-2; John Kerley 1884; G.J. 'Jocka' Todd 1931 (5 winners/8 wins)

Brownlow Medallists: Edward 'Carji' Greeves 1924; Bernie Smith 1951; Alistair Lord 1962; Paul Couch 1989; Jimmy Bartel 2007 (5 total)

Norm Smith Medallists:  Gary Ablett senior 1989; Steve Johnson 2007 (2 total)

Liston Trophy Winners:  James Byrne 2007 (1 total)

All Australians: B.Smith 1953; P.Pianto 1956; R.Davis 1958; D.Marshall 1966; J.Newman 1969; D.Clarke 1972; G.Malarkey 1979; M.Turner 1979; I.Nankervis 1980; M.Bairstow 1987; A.Bews 1987; B.Lindner 1987 & 1988 (13 total)

AFL All Australians: Mark Bairstow 1991 & 1992; Bill Brownless 1991; Paul Couch 1991 & 1995; Ken Hinkley 1991 & 1992; Gary Hocking 1991, 1993, 1994 & 1996; Gary Ablett senior 1992, 1993, 1994 & 1995; Barry Stoneham 1992; Michael Mansfield 1994 & 1995; Steven King 2000; Matthew Scarlett 2003, 2004 & 2007; Gary Ablett junior 2007; Jimmy Bartel 2007; Joel Corey 2007; Matthew Egan 2007; Steve Johnson 2007; Cameron Ling 2007; Darren Milburn 2007; Cameron Mooney 2007; Mark 'Bomber' Thompson (31 total)

V/AFL Top Goalkickers: E.James (27) 1897 & (31) 1899; L.Hagger (78) 1925; G.Moloney (109) 1932; L.White (86) 1948; G.Goninon (86) 1951; N.Rayson (80) 1955; D.Wade (68) 1962, (96) 1967 & (127) 1969; L.Donohue (105) 1976; G.Ablett senior (129) 1994 & (122) 1995 (13 total)

Geelong's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here

Highest Score: 37.17 (239) vs. Brisbane 11.9 (75) in round 7 1992

Most Games: 325 by Ian Nankervis 1967 to 1983

Record Home Attendance: 49,109 on 30 August 1952: Geelong 10.17 (77); Carlton 3.14 (32)

Record Finals Attendance: 109,396 for 1967 grand final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground: Richmond 16.18 (114); Geelong 15.15 (95)

Overall Success Rate 1897-2007: 52.5%

GREAT GAMES LINKS:	'The Greatest Grand Final Of All'
	The One That Got Away
	XXX

Over the years the Geelong Football Club has deservedly acquired a reputation for producing teams which play classy, skilful, attacking football. The senior side's success rate over more than a hundred seasons of VFL and AFL football is bettered only by league heavyweights Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon, and recent arrivals the West Coast Eagles and Port Adelaide. Yet despite reaching the finals on no fewer than forty-nine occasions the Cats have achieved ultimate premiership glory only seven times, a tally bettered by seven clubs including Melbourne (twelve flags from thirty-eight major round appearances), Richmond (10/34), Hawthorn (9/26) and Fitzroy (8/29).

All of which raises the important question of what constitutes 'success' - or, to put it in a way that relates more directly to the theme at hand, why do people play football? Obviously they do it in the hope or expectation that they will derive some form of enjoyment from it, but what brings about that enjoyment? If, as many would unquestioningly maintain, the sole purpose of playing football is to experience the joy of winning, and in particular the joy of winning premierships, then Geelong's achievements since the formation in 1897 of the Victorian Football League have to be described as modest (although the fact that the club's seventh flag was won so recently might seem to make them loom somewhat larger in the consciousness for a time). On the other hand, if one accepts that 'success' can just as readily be measured in terms of such intangibles as the achievement of improved personal and group standards, the pursuit of the aesthetically pleasing and spectacular, the eliciting of community pride and satisfaction, then Geelong Football Club must be viewed as one of Australia's most genuinely successful sporting organisations.  As Col Hutchinson put it:

People who attend Geelong matches have never been deprived of entertainment.  Even when the team has not been winning there have been controversies, brilliant passages of play, characters strutting their stuff or records being established.  (See footnote 1)

Such spectacular achievements should serve to convince that Geelong are very much a pivotal feature (pun intended) of the modern, media-saturated world of Australian football. They have long been one of the best supported sides in the country - indeed, on a pro rata basis, given the current population of Geelong, arguably the best supported side in the country - and, with the advent of corporate superpowers like West Coast and Adelaide increasingly divorcing football from its traditional, local supporters, they provide probably the closest direct link with a discernible, discrete community base of any AFL club.

Geelong is actually one of the oldest clubs in Australian football having originated in 1859 - the same year which saw the birth of Melbourne, which is traditionally accorded the accolade of being Australia's senior football club, of any code.  Even from the start, the club had a reputation for skilful, open football, in contrast with the more physical game favoured by the Melbourne clubs, and it was this contrast in styles, and the healthy rivalry it promoted, which probably did as much as anything to foster interest in the Victorian brand of football at the expense of all others. 

Despite hailing from a modest country town - often referred to by Melbournians, perhaps half enviously, as 'Sleepy Hollow' - the Pivotonians, as they swiftly became known, almost immediately emerged as a significant force. Prior to the formation of the Victorian Football Association in 1877 the club was acknowledged as being at the forefront of the game, and it swiftly enhanced this status by securing seven of the first ten VFA premierships to be contested. There were no further flags prior to the establishment of the breakaway Victorian Football League at the end of the 1896 season, but Geelong's persistent competitiveness ensured that it would be a part of the new set up from the outset.

At the conclusion of the home and away matches in the VFL's debut season of 1897 the four highest placed clubs - Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong and Melbourne - contested a round robin series of matches to determine the premiers. Geelong kicked poorly in its opening round loss to Essendon, as well as - in the view of its supporters - suffering at the hands of the umpires.  It went down in the end by 6 points, 3.11 (29) to 5.5 (35), but then played well to overcome both Melbourne and Collingwood to secure a creditable runners up position.  The 'Geelong Advertiser' was simultaneously rueful and defiant:

The opening of the season was very unpromising for Geelong, three matches being lost in succession, but the finish finds it a good runner-up, and fairly entitled to regard itself put out of the premiership by the vagaries of an umpire.  Impartial supporters of football will be found ready to concede that the displacement of Geelong from the position which it had brought itself by an unbroken series of victories was due rather to fortune's fickle mood than to superiority on the part of the team that has secured the first League premiership.  (See footnote 2)

Geelong was similarly competitive over most of the next decade, but a premiership proved elusive. Then, with the expansion of the VFL from eight clubs to ten in 1908, came disaster, as Geelong plummeted to a first ever wooden spoon, with even debutants University (twice) and Richmond (once) proving to have the Pivotonians' measure. When University travelled to Corio Oval on 13 June the Geelong players welcomed them onto the ground with three hearty cheers, no doubt reinforcing the visitors' confidence in the process. It would be hard to imagine similar sentiments being displayed nowadays.

Some of Geelong's Early VFL Stars [Images are clickable]
Frank Bowey, 44 games, 5 goals, 1901-04 & 1909	Henry 'Tracker' Young, 167 games, 76 goals, 1897-1910	Ernest 'Bung' Newling, 150 games, 22 goals, 1900-10	Charles Coles, 79 games, 82 goals, 1897-8 & 1900-04	Edward 'Teddy' Rankin, 181 games, 36 goals, 1897 & 1899-1910

Geelong found the seasons leading up to the outbreak of World War One a struggle, only twice - in 1912 and 1914 - contesting the finals, for 1st semi final defeats both times. In 1915 the club experienced the ignominy of a second wooden spoon before going temporarily into recess the following year. Back once more in 1917 Geelong embarked on a four season bout of mediocrity before returning to the finals fray - again with a 1st semi final loss - in 1921.

Football at Corio Oval was beginning to re-emerge from the doldrums, and there was better to come. In 1923 Geelong began to be referred to as 'the Cats' after 'Melbourne Herald' cartoonist Sam Wells suggested that a black cat would provide the team with the unlikely good fortune it needed to defeat high-ranking Carlton. When Geelong duly went on to record an upset victory the nickname was quick to take hold, and with it came a dramatic upturn in the club's performances. Two seasons later in 1925 Geelong swept all before it en route to a long-awaited premiership, the club's first for forty-one years. With the reserves having been successful in both of the preceding two seasons the club's playing strength had been building gradually for some time but the triumph nevertheless came as something of a surprise to many observers.

By coincidence, 1925 was also significant in heralding something of an economic 'shot in the arm' for the Geelong locality as a Ford assembly plant was opened. Down the years many a Geelong player acquired employment at the plant and, some half a century later when sponsorship became a major factor in the game, the Ford Motor Company would become the club's primary sponsor.

After the match, a civic reception attended by nearly 10,000 people awaited all the players on their return to Geelong:

Thousands of people congregated at the station, and subsequently escorted the players to the City Hall, where congratulatory speeches were made.

Three of Collingwood's leading officials came to Geelong by car on Saturday night especially to join in honouring the Geelong players and congratulatory messages were received from all parts.  A suggestion has been made that, apart from the trip to be given by the committee, the citizens of Geelong should make some small gift to each of the players in the 1925 team.  (See footnote 3)

The club's supporters did not have such a long wait this time before their heroes returned to the fore. After contesting the finals - without success - in 1926 and 1927 the Cats missed out for two seasons before going within an ace of another flag. After downing Carlton 13.11 (89) to 8.21 (69) in the 1st semi final Geelong played superbly to overcome minor premier Collingwood by 26 points in what, because of the result, became the season's penultimate game. Exercising their right of challenge the following week the Magpies, after trailing by 21 points at the long break, added 11.9 to 3.6 during the final two quarters to clinch a fourth consecutive premiership with formidable conviction.

Geelong had the smell of a flag in their nostrils, however. The following year the VFL, in common with numerous other leagues around Australia, introduced the Page-McIntyre system (see footnote 4) of playing finals, and the Cats proved to be the VFL's first beneficiaries of the new system, for after succumbing to a 2nd semi final loss at the hands of Richmond they recovered well with wins over Carlton, by a single straight kick in the preliminary final, and then, in the return against the Tigers. with surprising comfort, 9.14 (68) to 7.6 (48).

Geelong's 20 point defeat of Richmond constituted the first official VFL grand final. Prior to 1931 - with the exception of 1897 and 1924, when a round robin system had been tried - the destiny of the premiership had either been determined on the basis of a final, in which the minor premier proved successful, or a challenge final, in which the minor premier, having been unsuccessful at some stage during the finals, played off against the winner of the final.

The Cats' best during the 1931 grand final included wingman Jack Carney, follower Len Metherell, reputed by some to be the first VFL player regularly to use the drop punt (see footnote 5), centre half forward Jack Collins and centreman Edward 'Carji' Greeves. The last-named will forever have a place in football folklore as the first ever winner of the Brownlow Medal in 1924. A classical, long-kicking pivot player in the traditional mould, he was also a runner up for the Medal in 1930.  As has been mentioned, Greeves was later chosen in Geelong's 'Team of the 20th Century', an honour which was also bestowed on his 1931 team mates Reg Hickey, George Todd and Les Hardiman.  Jack Collins and Tom Quinn were named as emergencies.

Geelong was to remain a force to be contended with for much of the ensuing decade.

There were half a dozen survivors from the Class of '31 when Geelong next graced the MCG on grand final day six years later. Opposition was to be provided by Collingwood, premiers in each of the previous two seasons and, at that stage, the most successful VFL side in history. There was nothing between the sides for three quarters in a match played in good spirits in front of a then record crowd of 88,540, some of whom sat or squatted up to two metres inside the boundary line. With scores deadlocked on 80 points apiece at the final change the match was set for a riveting conclusion, but Geelong, in no mood for a cliff-hanger, added 6.6 to 1.4 to win with deceptive comfort. Ultimately the Cats had too much pace and system for the Magpies, with wingman Angie Muller, rover Tom Quinn, brothers Les ('Splinter') and 'Peter' (real name Harold) Hardiman, both of whom were followers, and 4 goal forward pocket Jack Metherell in his last VFL game, especially prominent.  Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, given that for many years the 1937 grand final was regarded as the finest example of classical, open football in VFL history, only two players from the Cats' winning line up - Reg Hickey, who coached and captained the side, and Les Hardiman - gained selection in the club's 'Team of the 20th Century'.

In 1938 the Cats bowed out to eventual premiers Carlton at the preliminary final stage, and the following year managed just 7 wins to miss the finals completely.  There was a partial recovery in 1940 as the side finished 4th, but this proved to be the club's last finals foray for a decade.  Indeed, with wartime travelling restrictions in full force in 1942 and 1943 Geelong did not even participate in the competition.  The 1950s, however, would be another story altogether.  By then, the club would have a new home base, Kardinia Park, and the navy and white hooped jumpers would be being donned to telling effect each Saturday by some of the most legendary names in football history.

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Footnotes

1.  The Clubs by John Ross and Garrie Hutchinson, page 176.  Return to Main Text

2.  'The Geelong Advertiser', 6 September 1897.  Return to Main Text

3.  Ibid, 10 October, 1925.  Return to Main Text

4.  The man who actually devised the system, Ken McIntyre, was a staunch Geelong supporter.   Percy Page was a Richmond delegate to the VFL who, after discussing the scheme with Mr. McIntyre, advocated it to the league.  Quite why this should entitle him to have his name attached to the system is unclear.  Return to Main Text

5.  See, for example, Cats' Tales by Col Hutchinson, page 57.  Originally from Subiaco, Metherell was said to have been taught the kick by his father who, presumably, was himself taught it by the infant Jack Dyer.  Return to Main Text