Cats Are Legit: Geelong Go Top After Seventh Straight Win

Seven straight and sitting top of the table — Geelong’s AFLW run right now is honestly no notes. The Cats put Richmond away by 34 points at Princes Park and if you’re still sleeping on this Geelong side, it’s time to wake up because they are legit premiership material.

I’ll admit I watch every AFLW round through a very Brisbane-tinted lens, but you don’t need to barrack for the Cats to see what’s happening here. This is a team that’s figured out how to win in a bunch of different ways, and that’s the thing that separates genuine flag contenders from sides that just have one good month.

Scheer Was the Story of the Night

If you want one name to take out of Princes Park, make it Scheer. She was everywhere for the Cats, the kind of performance that drags a scoreline from competitive to comfortable all on her own. Richmond’s defenders would’ve gone into the night with a plan for her and left with absolutely none of it intact.

What I love about watching a player go off like that in AFLW right now is how it still feels fresh. The men’s comp has had a century of blokes putting on four-goal hauls and everyone’s seen it a thousand times. When someone like Scheer has one of those nights, it still feels like we’re watching history get written in real time, and that’s part of why I reckon this competition deserves way more coverage than it gets.

The Margin Tells Its Own Story

A 34-point win isn’t a scrappy one-point squeaker you can wave away as a fluke. That’s a genuine statement result against a Richmond side that, on their day, can trouble anyone in this comp. Geelong didn’t need the last quarter heroics or a last-minute scare to get the job done — they controlled it.

That’s the stuff that should have every other list manager in the competition taking notice. Seven wins on the bounce isn’t luck, it’s structure. It’s a midfield brigade that’s winning the clearance count week after week, a defensive unit that isn’t leaking easy ball forward, and forwards who are actually making the most of what’s coming their way inside 50.

Why This Cats Team Is Built Different

Scrolling through the comments under every AFLW highlights post, you’ll always find the same old takes about the standard of the game. Fine, whatever, everyone’s entitled to an opinion. But put that noise aside for a sec and look at what Geelong are actually doing on the park — this is footy that would hold up in any era of the competition.

• Clearance work that’s setting up easy entries rather than scrambly ones
• A forward line that isn’t just one or two players carrying the scoreboard
• Defensive pressure that’s forcing turnovers in the right parts of the ground

When you tick those three boxes consistently across seven rounds, you’re not a side that’s just riding a hot streak. You’re a side that’s built something that should genuinely scare the comp heading toward finals footy.

What This Means for the Ladder

Topping the table this deep into the season isn’t just a nice stat for the Cats members to brag about at the footy club on a Friday night, it’s a genuine signal of where the premiership conversation sits right now. The teams chasing them have to find answers, and fast, because every week Geelong keeps winning is another week of belief pouring into that group.

I reckon the comparison that matters here isn’t even to the rest of this year’s ladder — it’s to the Cats sides of seasons past that promised plenty but came up short when it mattered in September… well, in AFLW terms, whenever finals footy lands on the calendar. This group feels different. There’s a calmness to how they’re closing out games that you don’t often see from a team that’s new to being the hunted rather than the hunter.

A Reminder the Game Keeps Growing

As someone who’s always banging on about growing this sport up here in Queensland, nights like this at Princes Park are exactly the kind of content that gets new fans hooked. A genuine contest, a standout individual performance, and a result that shifts the ladder conversation — that’s the recipie for building an audience, and the AFLW keeps serving it up round after round.

Every time a player like Scheer has a night like this, it’s another highlight reel that gets shared, another kid who watches it and wants a footy in their hands the next morning. That’s how you grow a code, not by talking about it in theory but by putting genuinely great footy on the park for people to actually watch.

The Bottom Line

Geelong are top of the ladder, seven wins deep, and showing zero signs of slowing down. Richmond will have plenty to review from this one, but credit where it’s due — the Cats were simply the better side across the four quarters, and Scheer was the standout among standouts.

Look, as a Lions fan I’d love nothing more than to see Brisbane carve their own path to the top of this table before finals roll around. But you’ve got to give credit where it’s due, and right now Geelong are playing a brand of footy that the rest of the competition genuinely needs to worry about. Seven straight is impressive. What they do with the next seven is where this season really gets decided.