When it comes to finals action, no two clubs have ever gone head-to-head more often than us and the Cats.

So to whet the appetite for Saturday, here are some little bits of trivia about finals clashes between these two great rivals.

  • We have played Geelong more times in finals than anyone else – Saturday will be the 26th finals clash between the clubs (nine of them in preliminary finals). This is the most of any two teams in the League, followed by Carlton-Richmond on 23, and Collingwood-Carlton and Collingwood-Melbourne on 22.
  • We have won 12 of our previous 25 finals against the Cats, and lost 13. Time to even the ledger?
  • Saturday will be our 186th final overall – the most in the competition by far. For Geelong it will be #130. We have an overall success rate of 45.14, compared to the Cats’ 43.80.
  • The two teams first met in a final – or a ‘section’ final as it was then – in the VFL’s very first year, 1897.
  • This is only the third time we’ve played Geelong in a Qualifying Final. We lost in 1981 (but beat them two weeks later) and won in 2019.
  • Records have been made and broken. Our 1930 Grand Final defeat of the Cats gave us our treasured four-in-a-row record that still stands. In 1953 we broke the Cats’ record home-and-away winning streak (23) during the regular season, then beat them in both finals to put a stop to their run of successes in 1951 and ’52.
  • The 1937 Grand Final is still regarded as one of the finest displays of ‘pure’ football witnessed on the last day of the season. The Cats won 122-90 but football was, as the saying goes, the real winner.
  • Peter Daicos has good memories of finals against Geelong. We played them in preliminary finals in both 1980 and 1981. In the former, Daics took a classic mark over Malcolm Reed. The following year he kicked an audacious goal that remains one of his all-time favourites – handballing around Ian Nankervis before re-gathering and goaling on the run. Josh and Nick might be in for good games.
  • Our first half in the 2010 preliminary final is still remembered as one of our finest footballing displays ever. We led by a staggering 62 points at half-time, after a seven-goal first quarter and six in the second.
  • Our highest scoring quarter against Geelong in a final is the eight goals we piled on in the third quarter of the 1930 Grand Final, turning a 21-point half-time deficit into a match-winning 32-point lead.