Round 19
Geelong v St Kilda
7:30pm, Thursday 16th July 2026
GMHBA Stadium, Geelong
By Dan Lonergan
When I started following the VFL avidly in late 1975 and in particular 1976, the home grounds were hostile territory for the opposition, no matter where they were placed on the ladder.
Footscray, my team, struggled for most of the first 8 years I followed them, so wins were rare, but they had the wood over teams that were far superior than them at the Western Oval. Carlton in particular was one of them. The Blues were always a much better team than the Dogs in the 1970s and early 80s making the finals every year but one and winning three flags, but the Dogs had some excellent wins at the Whitten Oval over the much more fancied Blues. 1978 on the Queens Birthday weekend was one of them, the last round of 1977, which saw the Blues knocked out of the finals, with South Melbourne getting in after defeating the eventual premiers, North Melbourne.
On Easter Saturday in 1983, the Bulldogs stunned the then reigning grand final winners, Carlton, which started a four game winning streak for the perennial strugglers and in that period they won more games than they had for all of 1981 and 1982.
Tom Hafey’s powerful teams of the 1960s and 1970s openly admitted they hated going to the Western Oval as it was called back then and were often defeated with the great, Royce Hart regularly quelled by
the Dogs” reliable centre half back, Peter Welsh, who won the Best and Fairest in the early 1970s.
Before Hawthorn dominated the competition, and it started when they moved home and away games to Princess Park in 1974, Glenferrie Oval being small and narrow was always tough for the opposition. Teams were in particular under the pump when the Hawks were kicking to the main grandstand end in the final term, which I have been told was always jam-packed as Hawthorn. Especially if they were behind, the Hawks would storm home and generally win, with Peter Hudson marking everything that moved and kicking goals as the opposition wilted.
St Kilda had a horrible 1980s picking up five wooden spoons in six years and finishing second or third bottom in three others, but they made Moorabbin hard to play on, with the ‘Animal Enclosure’ of supporters not very hospitable and the ground being very muddy. The poor condition of the ground was before the days of excellent drainage being implemented and if it rained heavily all the grounds were tough to play on. There is plenty of truth according to Saints officials back in the 1980s, of the ground also being watered to make it even more challenging if possible for St Kilda’s opponents, when there were home games.
All of the suburban grounds were never a walk in the park for the visiting teams. I did not have the fortune of ever watching a game of footy at the Junction Oval, but saw plenty on the TV of how well
Fitzroy when they were down the bottom of the ladder would rise at home and beat the better sides, When the Lions were strong from 1979 to 1984 and made the finals regularly, they would belt teams constantly such was the strong home ground advantage they had at the Junction.
South Melbourne would make it tough no matter where they were on the ladder for opposing clubs at the Lakeside Oval, located right next door to Albert Park Lake. Arden St with the gasometer and being
small was another difficult assignment particularly when Ron Barassi became coach and the Roos were a powerhouse.
That’s one of the reasons why Geelong have for two decades sat near the top of the ladder and been in contention to make grand finals and win flags. Kardinia Park is a fortress and Geelong is the only Victorian club that have matches held on the ground nowadays that the Cats have trained and played at forever and since this wonderful era started in 2004, it has on many occasions been virtually impossible for the other AFL clubs to win.
St Kilda going into last Thursday’s clash at the Cattery had not won down there this century. Their last win was in 1999, when Geelong were a struggling team in Gary Ayres’ last season.
This match was a golden opportunity to break that long losing streak for the Saints as the Cats were vulnerable having dropped five of their previous six games and were in jeopardy of missing out on a wildcard spot let alone being entrenched in the top six and top four, which they have owned for years.
St Kilda was 10th going into this contest with eight wins and nine losses like a number of sides. The AFL has got it’s wish that the Wildcard fixture would keep teams alive for longer, but there is still a good chance that a final spot in the ten might be obtained by a team who loses more games than they win, which does promote mediocrity. However, it looks like it’s here to stay and if this year is repeated regarding on field results, the top ten probably won’t be decided until the last day of the home and away season, which is what all footy fans I
reckon crave.
The Saints though blew it, conceding the first four goals and were never in the hunt and lost by 28 points, which was a flattering margin for them as they kicked the last three goals in junk time. The only positive was their percentage didn’t suffer as much as it could have as it’s still reasonably healthy at over 104 percent.
Geelong made seven changes, which for the Cats let alone all clubs is massive indicating they knew their season was starting to slip away. Gryan Miers, despite a partially torn ACL, returned after some excellent weeks in the VFL and was obviously fit enough dominating with his beautiful passing inside 50 a feature on Thursday night. He showed how much he was missed and how important he is to their structure.
Brad Close was also a handy addition as a small forward and their excellent depth was again highlighted with Jeremy Cameron injured and young tall forward, Jay Polkinghorne made his debut and looked more than accomplished.We love this great game as players are recruited from all parts of Australia and Polkinghorne comes from South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula and the little known small town of Penong of which I think most of the population were at Geelong to see him play well.
For the Saints, it was a disappointing night. The 2 million dollar man, Wanganeen-Millera was restricted by the best tagger in the comp, Oisin Mullin, but did not get support from his St Kilda teammates in trying to break the tag. Their best player was Rowan Marshall, who rucked on his own, with St Kilda’s expensive recruit, Tom De Koning out injured. The dual ruck combination, in my opinion has clearly not worked and many clubs rightly so are keen on enticing Marshall from the Saints.
The spending spree of attracting players from other clubs hasn’t gone in the direction St Kilda would have wanted, but they have a good batch of young emerging players, so maybe they concentrate on the draft, which is uncompromised this season before the Tassie Devils take part in 2027 to get ready for their debut year in 2028.
St Kilda’s coach, Ross Lyon I also feel is not taking enough responsibility for his team’s below par performance this season and specifically their inability to beat sides above them. In my opinion he treats the media with disdain and belittles them especially when they lose. I get the impression he has too much power at that football club and is not held accountable except by the President, Andrew Bassat, who I remain convinced gives him too much latitude.
If the finals started now, St Kilda would be in the Wildcard Round with an 8 win 10 loss record, but I don’t think they deserve to be there, then you could also say that about the other clubs also with the same
form line in Carlton, the Giants and North Melbourne.
They were looking for the quick fix to rise up the ladder when they sacked Brett Ratten surprisingly in October 2022. St Kilda and Bassat felt they had a better playing list than what Ratten had produced with it.
However, if the list was that good, why would they raid other clubs and get players, even if the ones they got are good at best? It’s a strange philosophy and it indicates to me that St Kilda is still a club that does not know where it’s going. Thursday’s result proved that and showed St Kilda are not ready to do battle with the big boys and win. When that will be is the million dollar question or in Tom De Koning’s orbit 1,7 million!!!
GEELONG 4.2 7.8 11.11 15.12 (102)
ST KILDA 2.0 3.5 7.6 11.9 (75)
GOALS
Geelong: Miers 3, O.Henry 2, Dempsey 2, Polkinghorne 2, Mannagh, Atkins, Worpel, Neale, Dangerfield, Smith
St Kilda: Marshall 2, Hall 2, Ryan 2, Garcia, Higgins, Lake, Silvagni, Wanganeen-Milera
BEST
Geelong: Smith, Miers, Clark, Mullin, Humphries
St Kilda: Marshall, Garcia, Phillipou, Hall
INJURIES
Geelong: Mannagh (hamstring), Holmes (ankle)
St Kilda: Nil
Crowd: 23,737
Malarkey votes
3 – Smith (Geelong)
2 – Mullin (Geelong)
1 – Marshall (St Kilda)
Read other round 19 match reports HERE
Read more from Dan Lonergan HERE
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