Geelong Just Told the Comp They’re Flag Favourites, No Notes
Some wins just hit different, and Geelong’s demolition job on the Western Bulldogs is one of those. This wasn’t just three points and a top-two finish locked away, this was the Cats standing up in front of the whole comp and saying loud and clear: we’re here for the flag, not just the finals experience.
A statement win, not just a good one
There’s a difference between winning well and sending a message, and Geelong did the second one. The Bulldogs have been a genuinely good side this year, not some easybeat you pad your percentage against, so the manner of this result matters heaps more than the margin alone. When a team that’s spent finals week after finals week just missing the big dance suddenly looks this composed and this ruthless, you sit up and take notice.
I’ve watched a lot of AFLW over the past few seasons and you can usually tell the difference between a team that’s playing good footy and a team that believes it’s going all the way. Geelong looked like the second one. Every contest they wanted, they basically got. Every forward 50 entry looked threatening. It’s the kind of performance that genuinely shifts how you rank the flag fancies with finals just around the corner.
Why this Cats team is legit different
Geelong have been building toward this for a couple of seasons now and it’s not an overnight thing. The midfield brigade has been getting more and more dangerous, the forward structures have had real purpose to them, and defensively they’ve tightened up in a way that honestly flew a bit under the radar for a lot of casual footy fans. This isn’t a flashy, one-dimensional outfit that lives and dies on one or two star names. It’s a team that can hurt you multiple ways, which is exactly what you need once finals footy gets tight and tense.
What really stood out to me watching this one was the pressure around the ball. The Bulldogs are usually really good at generating turnovers and making you pay in transition, but Geelong just didn’t let them get comfortable. Every time the Dogs tried to work it out of defence, there was a Cat on them in half a second. That’s not accidental, that’s a game plan executed to perfection, and it’s the sort of thing that travels well into finals when the margins get smaller and every possession counts double.
The Bulldogs still have questions to answer
I don’t want to pile on the Dogs here because they’ve had a genuinely solid season and they’re still going to be dangerous in finals, don’t get it twisted. But this result does expose a few cracks that their fans will be a little worried about heading into the pointy end of the year. When their ball movement got disrupted they didn’t really have a clean plan B, and that’s a concern against the top sides who can lock a game down defensively.
There’s also the conversation around their forward line efficiency, which has been a talking point for a few weeks now among footy heads online. Generating the ball inside 50 is one thing, actually converting it into scoreboard pressure is another, and against a Cats defence that was switched on and organised, the Dogs just couldn’t find enough clean looks at goal. That’s fixable with a bit of time and some structural tweaks, but finals doesn’t really give you time, it gives you knockout footy where one bad quarter can end your season.
What this means for the flag picture
Geelong locking in that top-two finish is honestly massive for their premiership chances. Anyone who’s followed AFLW finals knows that double chance is basically gold, it gives you margin for error that the teams outside the top two just don’t get. One off night in an elimination final and your whole season’s cooked, but a top-two side gets to absorb a loss and still find a way through. That changes how you game plan, how you manage bodies, and honestly how confident a playing group feels walking into finals.
I reckon this result also forces a genuine rethink of the premiership market. Before this performance you’d have had a handful of teams roughly bunched together as co-favourites, but wins like this one force you to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Geelong just looked like a different level, and in a competition as tight and as competitive as AFLW has become, that’s not something you see every week.
Growing the game and why this matters
As someone who’s genuinely passionate about AFLW growing bigger and bigger, especially up here in Queensland where the game is still finding its feet with a lot of newer fans, performances like this are exactly what the competition needs. Blowout statement wins get people talking, they get shared around on socials, they get casual fans who might only half follow AFLW suddenly interested in who’s going to win it all. That buzz matters for the growth of the women’s game just as much as it does for the men’s side of things.
It’s also a reminder that AFLW deserves to be covered with the same seriousness and the same depth of analysis as any other footy competiton in this country. The tactics on display in this game, the pressure structures, the forward entries, that’s elite level stuff and it deserves proper breakdown, not just a quick highlights reel and move on. Geelong’s players and coaching staff should be getting heaps of credit for putting together a performance this complete.
The verdict
Look, finals footy has a habit of throwing up surprises and nothing is locked in until the cup is actually lifted, but you’d be mad to ignore what Geelong just did here. This was genuinely one of the statement wins of the AFLW season, the kind of result that gets replayed and talked about regardless of how the finals actually pan out. The Bulldogs will regroup and they’ll still be dangerous, this competition has shown time and again that form can shift fast, but right now the Cats look like the real deal.
If you’re building your flag fancy list this week, Geelong has to be right near the top of it. This wasn’t just a good win, it was a declaration. The rest of the comp has officially been put on notice.
