When was geelong football club founded

The Under 19 side has proved to be an invaluable feeder into our senior teams, and the Club sees its continued existence on a permanent basis as a major priority. From through until and including the Club enjoyed a considerable level of success with its re-established Under 19s two premierships , Reserves three premierships and Club 18 two premierships teams, but equally the Firsts encountered disappointment in a number of Preliminary Finals.

A highly successful season culminated with two Premierships, one for the Club 18 side, and the other for the Firsts. The latter gained the Club promotion to Premier Division C in In we fielded our inaugural women's team with the addition of a second women's team the following year.

Mobile rucks and a long striding half back line got the ball forward, and the forwards fanned out to provide a host of opportunities. Underlying these strategies, and in a sense a key to their success, was a training philosophy which verged on the modern:.

Remember that you play only as well as you are fit. The three quarters player lacks the will to win. If he's finished physically he can't go on with the job when the call is greatest. So again I say, never slack your training. Some people talk of teams going stale. Personally I don't think any team goes stale if they retain their interest to improve.

It's hard to come up fighting Saturday after Saturday if you are being whipped. To lose five or six matches on end is a 'killer'. I've been through it, and I can sympathise.

But there's only one remedy. Get up with the field. The field won't come back to you. So it's back to the old grind, training, developmental work, and more training. In Hickey's first season in charge, , the Cats played intermittently well, winning 9 of their first 15 games to appear in a strong position to contest their first finals series since However, an injury to key defender John Hyde badly unsettled the team, and contributed to a horror run of 4 successive losses which effectively de-railed the Cats' season.

A key to Geelong's improvement in was the recruitment from Essendon of talented full forward George Goninon whose senior opportunities at Windy Hill had been limited owing to the presence there of the greatest full forward in the game, a certain John Coleman.

Goninon's arrival proved especially timely as the Cats' primary goal kicker of the previous decade, Lindsay White, snapped his Achilles tendon in a match against South Melbourne and never played again.

Afforded greater responsibility in the wake of White's departure, Goninon's form improved, and his overall contributions to the team effort increased, as the season wore on. With 10 wins from 18 home-and-away matches, Geelong qualified for the finals in in fourth place.

The Hickey 'pace and space' formula finally clicked in With experienced and highly gifted individuals like future 'Team of the Century' members Bob Davis, Fred Flanagan and Bernie Smith now at their absolute peak as footballers, Geelong had a nucleus of talent unequalled anywhere. Goninon it was who virtually proved the difference between the combatants on second semi final day, contributing half of Geelong's 22 goals in an 82 point annihilation of Collingwood.

According to future VFL chief commissioner Jack Hamilton, who was at full back for the Magpies when Goninon entered his name in the record books:. It was the worst day I have ever had. I had handled Goninon quite easily in two matches in which we had met earlier in the season[11] and was confident of being able to subdue him again.

As it turned out, George couldn't do a thing wrong and I couldn't do a thing right. Geelong had the ball on their forward line for most of the match and I had no chance of stopping some of the passes that were delivered to him. His kicking was superb, he was credited with One of his shots went straight through the middle and the goal umpire signalled a behind! It wasn't my place to argue. Two factors combined to bolster the Cats' confidence in advance of their grand final showdown against reigning premiers Essendon, which had ended Collingwood's season with two-point victory in the preliminary final.

The first was that Bomber spearhead John Coleman, the biggest superstar in the VFL, would miss the match after having been suspended by the VFL tribunal for striking Carlton's Harry Casper in the last minor round game of the year. Coleman had averaged more than 4 goals a game in and it went without saying that, without him, the Bombers would be a significantly less troublesome opponent. The second boost to the players' confidence came from classy and irrepressible back pocket Bernie Smith being awarded the Brownlow Medal, the first Geelong player since 'Carji' Greeves, in the Medal's inaugural year of , to be so honoured.

The grand final started well for Geelong as George Goninon had a goal on the board within a minute of the opening bounce. Full of confidence, the Cats surged forward again and again, but their next half a dozen shots for goal all resulted in minor scores.

Meanwhile the Bombers, with virtually their only coherent forward foray of the term, goaled through Hutchison. Goals for Geelong late in the term through Norman and Goninon gave the Cats a 3. Perhaps predictably, Essendon proceeded to punish Geelong's waywardness during the second term, adding 5.

With the match very much in the balance the Geelong players were forced to dig deep, which they duly did to run the Bombers off their feet in a decisive third quarter.

At three quarter time the Cats led by 27 points and looked home and dry, and so it ultimately proved, although not before the Bombers had received a late lift by the entry to the arena of their legendary champion 'King Dick' Reynolds. Inspired by Reynolds, Essendon got within five points late in the final term, but Geelong was able to steady and pull away to secure an 11 point victory, George Goninon top scored with 4 goals. Whether the presence of John Coleman in the Essendon team would have made a difference to the eventual result is a tantalising question, the answer to which will necessarily vary depending on your allegiance.

Nevertheless, what cannot be denied is that Geelong under Hickey had developed into a marvellous team. Indeed, with Bernie Smith having won the Brownlow, and George Goninon, with 86 goals, having been the league's top goal kicker, the Cats had secured a prestigious treble which only Collingwood, in and , had previously accomplished. The Cats won a tough, high standard encounter by 8 points, 8.

With more or less the same group of players as in Geelong continued to dominate, and indeed to improve, the following year. Only 2 home and away matches were lost this time around, compared to 4 the previous season, and with the defence in particular displaying extraordinary impenetrability, many of the wins were achieved with redoubtable conviction.

Only twice, against Carlton in round seven and Essendon at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in round eight, did the Cats have tallies in excess of points kicked against them. They tuned up for the finals with a In the grand final, watched by a crowd of 82,, "the Magpies pitted their courage and determination against Geelong's superior speed, skill and system, but it wasn't enough.

An incident which epitomised Geelong's superiority, as well as exemplifying the team's style of play under Hickey, occurred early in the third quarter after the Magpies had started to show signs of getting back into the game:.

Highlight of the match was a third quarter dash of yards around the outer wing by Davis Geelong. Starting on the half back flank, Davis raced around the wing, bouncing the ball as he went at top speed, and leaving Collingwood players far behind. Tackled near the half forward flank, he handpassed to Worner, who passed back to Davis, and the ball eventually finished in the teeth of goal.

Ah, I remember it well! I had seven or eight bounces in that run and then let fly with a running drop kick - my favourite form of disposal. As a boy I had always dreamed of playing in a grand final at the MCG and of launching myself on an extended run downfield. The funny thing is that I recalled this dream as I was bouncing the ball and dodging my Collingwood opponents. Following this incident, Geelong went on to add 6 goals for the term to Collingwood's 2, effectively laying to rest any doubts as to where the VFL pennant was heading.

The last quarter was a cakewalk as the Cats kept Collingwood goalless as they careered to a 46 point win, Geelong's fair headed half back flanker Geoff Williams was best afield, with rover Neil Trezise, change ruckman Norm Sharp, back pocket Bernie Smith, and 5 goal full forward George Goninon also prominent. Geelong, the team whose blistering pace has given football a new meaning in the last two years, romped away from Collingwood in the League grand final on Saturday to win its second successive pennant.

To achieve this new club record, Geelong had to wear down a tenacious and aggressive Magpie side that battled on, yard by yard, with the desperation of despair. It was a triumph richly deserved by a sternly disciplined Geelong 'machine', which plays a clean exhilarating game, entirely free from dirt, spite, and the murky reprisal.

It was a fitting reward, too, for a team which has been a model of consistency, and one which stepped up the tempo of the game to a pitch no rival could either excel or equal. Geelong, if the saying can be stomached, appeared to 'have the wood' on the Magpies, having emerged victorious from each of the last five meetings between the sides.

The season, however, was to see Collingwood achieve conclusive revenge, beginning with the round fourteen home and away clash at Kardinia Park. Going into the match, which was played in conditions more suited to open air mud wrestling than football, the Cats had remained unbeaten for 26 games, spread across two seasons, a VFL record. However, "the Magpies turned Mud Larks and beat the seemingly invincible Cats If this was the first crack to appear in the Geelong armour, a potentially more injurious one appeared three weeks later when South Melbourne handed the Cats their biggest hiding for over a year, in the process making them look tired, hesitant and lacking in confidence.

Qualification for the finals was never in doubt, and indeed the side already had enough wins in the bank combined with a sufficiently hefty percentage to ensure a top place finish. However, the sudden decline in form was as bewildering as it was alarming and badly timed. Football, like most sports, is evolutionary in nature. That is to say, the criteria for success are continually being modified and redefined. Geelong in the early s had set new standards with a fast, open, run on style of football which certain other teams had swiftly endeavoured to copy, but without ever achieving the same degrees of fluency or effectiveness.

The team has always played in the hooped dark blue and white jerseys but they have not always been known as the Cats, they took on this name in Past nicknames for the team were The Pivotonians and The Seagulls. The blue on the jersey was chosen to represent the sea while the white was to represent the seagulls. The early Geelong home games were played on a field called Argyle Square.

By the VFL was founded and many of the Melbourne teams we know today joined the competition. They were successful again in and In during the war time the club relocated to Kardinia Park where they remain today. West Coast Eagles. Western Bulldogs. Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Snapchat. Created By. Naming Rights Partner.

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