Freo\u2019s only loss in 2026 was to the Cats in round 1<\/a> after they blew a major lead at the Cattery.<\/p>\nWill they claim revenge? Follow all the latest LIVE.<\/p>\n
Q1: CATS MAKE THE PERFECT START<\/p>\n
Welcome to the Jack Martin show.<\/p>\n
The veteran is always a threat up forward and he\u2019s on tonight, booting three first quarter goals.<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s aerial prowess for his size was a key factor, as he and Ollie Wiltshire combined to kick the Cats\u2019 first five.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Bailey Smith, no worries,\u201d Jack Riewoldt said on Kayo Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought \u2018who was going to cover in the midfield?\u2019 and Max Holmes was one name thrown up but Danger starts to roll back through the middle and he\u2019s spent the last five to six minutes on the ball and this is exactly what he\u2019s in there for.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an impact player.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then once it\u2019s in there you\u2019ve got to be ready for your opportunities and Wiltshire has been ready.\u201d <\/p>\n
At the other end, Fremantle have wasted some gettable chances, but were handed a goal on a silver platter when Jake Kolodjashnij\u2019s spoil went horribly wrong.<\/p>\n
Three misses from Josh Treacy look to be a concern for the Dockers, who trail by 10 at the first change.<\/p>\n
Pat Voss kicks a bomb against the Cats<\/p>\n
PRE-GAME: CATS ARE UP FOR THE FIGHT EVEN WITHOUT BAZ<\/p>\n
Geelong coach Chris Scott says his side are up for the challenge against Fremantle even without Bailey Smith.<\/p>\n
The superstar was ruled out through illness, with Scott revealing Smith never got on the plane to Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not exactly sure how he\u2019s feeling,\u201d Scott said on Kayo Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been ill so he just wasn\u2019t good enough to get on the plane yesterday, which in a way kind of makes our decision a bit easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s one of those where maybe 20 years ago you just play when you\u2019re feeling a bit sick, and we just have no appetite for guys to play when they\u2019re less than what I would consider good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a test without Bailey and Tom against probably the best team in the comp at the moment, but we\u2019re up for the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott said the Cats have multiple options to tag with Oisin Mullin or Mark O\u2019Connor including young star Murphy Reid.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is (having a great impact), and I think again that it is a little bit hard to predict what they\u2019ll do,\u201d Scott said on Kayo Sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little easier when Serong was out of the team, but obviously Serong goes back into their midfield, so you think that Bolton and Reid would be a little bit more ahead of the ball,<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I guess we go to Serong as a priority, even though he\u2019s been out for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top four blockbuster kicks off round 15, as the Cats head west minus superstar Bailey Smith to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[358326,638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-744294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-matchidafl20261501","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744294","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=744294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}