The game we’ve all been waiting for: How the battle between Cats and Lions will be won

2 weeks ago 3

Opinion

September 25, 2025 — 11.30am

This seems right.

Finally, Geelong and the Brisbane Lions will meet in a grand final. It’s the game football fans have been waiting all year for – perhaps even longer.

They each have four premierships this century and are competing in their seventh grand final of the 2000s.

The Cats, with stars Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron, and the Lions, with stars Will Ashcroft and Cam Rayner, will play off in the grand final on Saturday.

Back in 2004, I was playing for an emerging Cats line-up that came agonisingly close to toppling the formidable Lions in a preliminary final. We lost by nine points. Last year the Lions charged over the top of the Cats by 10 points in a preliminary final that was one of the games of the year and cruised to the premiership the next week. In between those matches, Geelong booked themselves grand final berths in 2020 and 2022 by beating Brisbane in prelims.

The point is, even though these clubs have never met in a VFL/AFL grand final, their recent rivalry is fierce. They were the two best teams of 2025 and have both constantly put themselves in a position to challenge for the premiership.

The admiration I have for Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan and the others who have helped him turn around their club is immense. After the glory days of the early 2000s, Brisbane lost their way for a few years there, but Fagan and Greg Swann – as CEO until he joined the AFL earlier this year – righted the ship. The alignment from that pair through to list management and their recruiting and medical teams has made them one of the AFL’s destination clubs.

Every time a challenge has confronted them this year, they have answered the call. Injuries, a tough loss, form issues, whatever it’s been, Fagan has navigated their premiership defence perfectly.

Geelong on the other hand, are methodical, metronomically putting themselves in contention deep in the season.

Their development program under former Lions great Nigel Lappin continues to identify and produce high-level AFL players from unlikely origins. Fourteen Cats in their preliminary final win over Hawthorn were selected with picks outside the top 30 of the draft. Most of them, in fact, were rookie or category B selections.

Cats coach Chris Scott’s ability to move and adjust with the game, year after year, and more importantly week after week, is why he is so often rated among the greatest all-time AFL coaches.

The craftsmen

Small and mid-sized forwards can be hugely influential on grand final day. Just look at how often the Norm Smith Medal goes to one of these players, and how well-stocked both these teams are.

The Lions and Cats both have a battalion of crafty forwards who have a huge influence on their matches each and every week.

With the quality quartet of Zac Bailey, Charlie Cameron, Kai Lohmann and Cam Rayner, the Lions probably have a slight edge in forward-50m work and direct scoreboard impact. Although not tall, all four are strong overhead and capable of being played one-out as a deep forward, meaning they pose a constant threat to their opposition. You just can’t take your eyes off these four for a moment; even when they look like they’re having a quiet day, any one of them could spring to life and turn a game Brisbane’s way, as they’ve done so many times before.

Geelong’s smaller forwards are just as impactful, but in a slightly different way.

Tyson Stengle is the Geelong small who likes to play closer to goal; more like a typical forward pocket than Gryan Miers, Bradley Close or Shaun Mannagh. Those three provide the Cats with drive and connection. They each have an enormous work rate, which they use to get up the ground and provide their team with a linking option as the Cats surge forward off half-back. All of them are excellent kicks inside their team’s forward 50m and regularly get involved in Geelong’s scoring chains.

Harass Andrews

The Lions have the best defender in the grand final and the Cats have the best forward. But don’t expect this game to be a throwback to the old days; there’s little chance of Harris Andrews and Jeremy Cameron playing head-to-head on each other for long stretches of the match.

Ryan Lester is the ultimate team man for the Lions. He is likely to get first crack at Cameron and will be comfortable if the Cat’s superstar is taking marks up on centre wing and beyond.

Lions defender Harris Andrews will be crucial to the contest.

The Cats might instruct Shannon Neale to use his running power to get in behind Andrews, or maybe recruit Jack Martin will be given the task of helping bring the ball to ground. Whatever the plan, Geelong’s mission against Andrews will be crystal clear: don’t let him mark the footy.

If they can stop him doing that, the Lions ability to rebound from defence will be seriously curtailed.

The taskmasters

Look out if the ball spills between Brisbane’s Josh Dunkley and Geelong’s Tom Atkins on Saturday. They are two of the most ferocious and selfless players in the AFL. In fact, only Brownlow medallist Matt Rowell (214) sits between Atkins (226 in first place) and Dunkley (third with 213) on the leaderboard of AFL tacklers in 2025.

Tom Atkins is one of the most selfless and ferocious players in the AFL.

These two provide the quality control for their team at clearances and in contested situations. The grunt work they do is what allows their more heralded teammates to shine.

If Lachie Neale overcomes his calf injury and plays in the grand final, I expect Atkins will get the job of making sure the dual Brownlow medallist has limited impact on the contest, while still being tasked with driving the Cats forward, like he did in the preliminary final against Hawthorn.

It’s not as easy to predict what Dunkley’s role will be. I’ll be intrigued to see who Fagan assigns him to. Will it be one of Geelong’s dash brothers – Bailey Smith or Max Holmes – or will he get the job of being kryptonite to the man who impersonated Superman for the Cats last week, skipper Patrick Dangerfield?

Speaking of players being given assignments, Geelong have two magnificent Irishmen, Mark O’Connor and Oisin Mullin, who are both likely to lock onto a Lions playmaker. The question is, will they be asked to repeat the roles they carried out so successfully at in their team’s qualifying final win over the Lions – O’Connor on Rayner and Mullin on Hugh McCluggage – or will Scott have another match-up in mind this time around?

It’s all part of what makes grand finals so special and intriguing – there will be match-ups all over the ground that could shape the result.

In the shoes of the coaches

Putting myself in Chris Fagan’s shoes my message to the Brisbane Lions players before they run out is simple:

“Be brave with the ball in hand, like you’ve been all season. Take risks. Kick the ball with dare up the middle of the MCG, and test the Cats with your ball movement. This has been the formula for success against them all season. It’s all about attitude. Yes, you will turn the ball over occasionally, we’ll cop that. You simply must keep attacking them and going for your kicks. We can’t let their back line get settled. That’s what they want, especially without Tom Stewart, so let’s break through and strike before they’re ready.”

If I were Chris Scott, this would be my pre-game missive to the Cats:

“We must repeatedly outnumber them at the contest and spread from there. This is how we swung the momentum against the Hawks last week, and it’s how we’re going to beat the Lions. Speed on the ball is our friend. If we can take care of the contest first, we have the players and the running power to capitalise. Brisbane might be potent, but they won’t be able to keep up with us if we win enough ball at the contest and spread from there.”

My tips

Surprise, surprise you might say, I’m tipping the Cats in what I’m hoping will be an epic grand final. These teams have the talent, the appealing game styles and coaches with the tactical acumen for this to be a grand final for the ages; one that we will talk about for years to come.

So for me, it’s the Cats by three points, with Mannagh to be the Norm Smith medallist.