Cats Missing Their Best, But Freo Still Needs to Front Up

Geelong’s heading to Perth short-handed for Thursday night’s clash against Fremantle, and already the east-coast commentary machine is spinning into overdrive about how tough the Cats have it. Look, I get it — losing a key player before a big away game is never ideal. But over here in the west, we’ve been hearing about how hard it is to travel to WA for about four decades now, so forgive me if I’m not exactly reaching for the world’s tiniest violin.

The news that Geelong will be without one of their prominent contributors for the Optus Stadium fixture is a genuine storyline heading into Thursday night. But it’s also a chance to zoom out and have a proper look at what this game means for both clubs — and what Fremantle actually need to do with the home advantage they’ve been gifted.

The Absence That Changes Geelong’s Plans

Make no mistake — losing a key piece of your puzzle right before a Thursday night blockbuster in Perth is a serious blow. Chris Scott has never been a coach who just rolls with the punches and hopes for the best. He’ll be recalibrating, moving bodies around, asking someone to step up in a role they haven’t fully nailed yet. That’s not nothing.

The Cats have been quietly building again this season after a period of transition that the football world seemed to assume would last longer than it has. They’ve got the cattle, as they always seem to, but even deep lists have their breaking points — and when you’re flying cross-country, playing under lights, on a quick turnaround, those pressure points get exposed faster than usual.

Geelong will still be dangerous. They always are. But the task just got legitimately harder, and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t watched enough footy.

Over Here in the West, We’ve Heard This Before

Here’s where I put my West Coast colours on the table and say what a lot of us over here in the west are thinking: the sympathy being directed towards Geelong for having to travel to Perth is, frankly, a bit rich.

The Eagles and the Dockers have been making that trip in reverse — Perth to Melbourne, Perth to Adelaide, Perth to Sydney — for their entire existences. We cop the late night flights, the body-clock disruptions, the 3am arrivals and the Tuesday recovery sessions more than any other clubs in the competition. You don’t hear an avalanche of national coverage about how tough the WA clubs have it when they’re flying into a cold Melbourne Tuesday night game. You just don’t.

So yes, it’s a long way to come to Perth. Yes, Thursday night adds a wrinkle to the preparation. But this is Geelong — a club with elite support staff, a big list, and decades of experience navigating difficult circumstances. They’ll manage.

What Fremantle Actually Need to Deliver

This is the part that matters most, and it’s also the part that Dockers fans won’t want me to gloss over: Fremantle need to take this game by the scruff of the neck and win it convincingly.

Having home ground advantage at Optus — which, let’s be honest, is one of the best footall grounds in the country — against a Geelong side missing key personnel, under lights, in front of what should be a passionate Perth crowd? If you’re a Dockers supporter, you don’t want a scrappy four-point win. You want a performance that signals something real about where this club is headed.

Justin Longmuir’s group has shown real flashes this season. The midfield has been competitive, the forward line has had moments of genuine class, and defensively they’ve been harder to break down than in previous years. But Fremantle have also had a habit in recent times of being good when things go their way and fragile when they don’t. A wounded Geelong side is still a proud one, and the Cats will absolutely test that fragility.

The Matchup That Still Shapes the Game

Even without their absentee, Geelong will bring structures and systems that have been refined over many, many seasons under Scott. Their ability to control tempo — to slow a game down when they need to, to lift it when they sense an opening — is genuinely elite. Fremantle will need to match that intensity from the first bounce, not find it in the third quarter when they’re already chasing.

The contest at clearances will be crucial. Geelong’s engine room has been ticking along and if they can get the ball moving on their terms early, Fremantle’s defensive structures get tested in ways they’d rather avoid. Conversely, if Freo can win the contested ball and push it forward quickly, they have the forward firepower to hurt any side — including one of the competition’s benchmark teams.

There’s also the Thursday night factor to consider. Short-turnaround footy is genuinely different. Bodies are a bit sorer, preparation windows are tighter, and the team that looks after the ball best — and concedes fewer brain-explosions from fatigue — tends to have the edge late in the game. That suits a composed, experienced Cats side in some ways, even with the changes forced upon them.

What a Dockers Win Would Mean for the Season

For Fremantle, this game is loaded with significance beyond the four points. A clean, convincing win over a quality Geelong outfit — even a depleted one — sends a message that the Dockers are a genuine September contender, not just a team papering over cracks with home ground results.

The competition is more compressed than ever. Ladder position shifts week to week. A strong Thursday night showing would boost the percentage, build genuine confidence, and give Longmuir’s group something to point at when the going gets tougher later in the year. Perth crowds have been terrific this season, and giving them a performance to roar about under the Thursday night lights would do wonders for the whole club’s momentum.

The flip side? If Fremantle let a short-handed Geelong side hang around, grind them down, and steal a win late, the questions that have followed this group for years will get very loud again, very quickly.

My Call: Freo to Win, But Not to Cruise

I’m going Fremantle to get the four points, but I don’t think it’ll be the emphatic statement the Dockers’ supporters are hoping for. Geelong — even missing a key player, even after flying across the Nullarbor — is the sort of side that makes you earn every single bit of it. They won’t lie down, Scott won’t let them, and some of these blokes have been in big moments more times than most of us have had decent Saturday arvo feeds.

Fremantle by a couple of goals, in a game that’s in the balance well into the final term. Perth will love it. And somewhere in all the post-match coverage, somone will mention how hard the travel was for Geelong. Just once, though, I’d love to hear someone mention how hard it’s been for the WA clubs to travel east every other week for the last thirty-odd years. But that’s a column for another day.

Thursday night footy in Perth. Hard to beat, really.