\n Injuries played a part but weren’t to blame for Geelong’s Grand Final performance, say veterans and coach\n <\/p>\n
Jeremy Cameron during the Grand Final between Geelong and Brisbane at the MCG, September 27, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
GEELONG captain Patrick Dangerfield has no excuses for how he or his team performed after the Cats slipped to a 47-point Grand Final loss to Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Dangerfield was at his brilliant best in the preliminary final victory over Hawthorn but was blanketed by Brandon Starcevich in the decider and had little influence.<\/p>\n
2025 TOYOTA AFL GRAND FINAL Full match coverage and stats<\/a> Dangerfield, who had just 10 disposals and no goals, brushed away a question regarding whether he was 100 per cent fit.<\/p>\n “No, it’s a ruthless game. So there’s no excuses from me or anyone,” Dangerfield said.<\/p>\n “We just couldn’t quite get it done.”<\/p>\n Geelong went into the game without Tom Stewart (concussion) while coach Chris Scott alluded to “obstacles” his team had faced this year without going into details.<\/p>\n Spearhead Jeremy Cameron, held goalless by Darcy Gardiner, suffered a broken right arm in a collision with Dangerfield in the second term and played through it in distress.<\/p>\n “He looks pretty sore. He’s obviously an important player for us, and it was a big hit,” Dangerfield said.<\/p>\n Scott admitted the Cats had struggled with the decision of whether to substitute Cameron, who laid an incredible one-handed tackle on Jaspa Fletcher to set up Max Holmes’ goal in the third term.<\/p>\n That appeared to aggravate the existing injury, but Geelong ultimately instead substituted Rhys Stanley ahead of Cameron, who had his arm in a sling post-match.<\/p>\n “In the heat of the moment it’s hard to work out: is it a crack? Is it a decent break? Can he play? Can’t he? And that took a long time to work out,” Scott said.<\/p>\n “But obviously, yeah, he was heavily limited from late in that second quarter.”<\/p>\n Midfield hardman Tom Atkins noted Cameron had come off and returned to the fray, but defended both he and Dangerfield for their quiet performances.<\/p>\n “I didn’t think he’d (Cameron) played poorly at all. We probably didn’t give him the best service as mids, so nothing about Jez,” Atkins said.<\/p>\n “Maybe we didn’t give them (Cameron and Dangerfield) as good looks as we could have. We sort of kicked in straight lines for most of the day and their defence is too good to do that.”<\/p>\n Cats coach Scott admitted he’d be up at 3am at times thinking about how the game played out, while Dangerfield, who expressed his pride in Geelong’s season on stage, kept his head high.<\/p>\n “It’s a hard one. The best part of the game is the feeling you get when you’re victorious, but equally, when you’re on the losing ledger of that, that’s the game, isn’t it?” Dangerfield said.<\/p>\n “So we didn’t quite execute as well as we would’ve like today. We played against a magnificent team that did execute.<\/p>\n “But still really proud of our team, our club, the organisation. We just weren’t able to frank it with a premiership.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Injuries played a part but weren’t to blame for Geelong’s Grand Final performance, say veterans and coach Jeremy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-173190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
MATCH REPORT Brisbane’s second-half blitz seals back-to-back flags<\/a>
THE MOMENT Lachie’s legendary goal breaks Geelong’s spirit<\/a>
TALKING POINTS Gun’s wayward day, Danger contained<\/a>
NORM SMITH MEDAL What inspired gun Lion to second Norm Smith<\/a>
LIONS PLAYER RATINGS Every player rated<\/a>
CATS PLAYER RATINGS Every player rated<\/a>
CHRIS FAGAN Fagan’s bold sub call proves a masterstroke<\/a>
‘COULDN’T BE MORE GRATEFUL’ How dynamic Lion got through his toughest year<\/a>
‘A BIT OF A MASTERSTROKE’ The call that made Lions star ‘bloody nervous’<\/a>
‘IT’S HARD EITHER WAY’ Duo savour moment before tough contract calls<\/a>
‘BROTHERHOOD IS A BIG THING’ Wounded Lion embraced after GF heartbreak<\/a>
‘BIG GOLDFISH MINDSET How Ted Lasso inspired gun’s performance<\/a>
‘SOMETHING I’LL CHERISH FOREVER’ Big O gets his flag redemption<\/a><\/p>\n