Geelong’s 2026 campaign has drawn to a close with the Cats eliminated from the AFLW Finals series, falling three points short against Sydney in Saturday’s Semi-Final at GMHBA Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a remarkable contest full of twists and turns, Geelong trailed for a large portion of the match but managed to stay within striking distance deep into the final term, mounting a late challenge but falling agonisingly short in a tense fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the odds against the Cats and some injury concerns adding up, Mikayla Bowen showed incredible resistance and strength through the middle of the ground, finishing the game with a team-high 23 disposals, five inside 50s and eight tackles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nina Morrison (19 disposals, two goal assists) led from the front all afternoon, Becky Webster and Claudia Gunjaca were stoic in defence and combined for 18 intercept possessions, while Chantel Emonson (536 metres gained) provided plenty of drive off half back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eager to make an early statement, the Cats could not have dreamed of a better start as they stormed out of the opening centre clearance, Nina Morrison hitting Aishling Moloney lace-out inside 50 and the Irish star launching home the set-shot, all occurring within the first 30 seconds of the match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the electric opening play would prove to be Geelong’s only score of the opening term, and coupled with a pair of impressive plays from Swans star Chloe Molloy, the Cats found themselves trailing by seven points at quarter time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgie Prespakis provided a spark as Geelong ramped up the pressure early in the second term, which ultimately started to lead to scoreboard impact as Chantal Mason nailed her first opportunity to put the home side back in front.\u00a0<\/p>\n
GEELONG, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 14: Georgie Prespakis of the Cats in action during the 2026 AFLW Second Semi Final match between the Geelong Cats and the Sydney Swans at GMHBA Stadium on November 14, 2026 in Geelong, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos)<\/p>\n
In nearly identical fashion to the first term however, a freakish moment from Molloy wrestled back the momentum for the Swans and despite a late goal to Chloe Scheer, the Cats remained five points adrift heading into half time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geelong were able to draw level in most major statistical categories during the second quarter, inspired by a terrific display from co-captain Nina Morrison, who finished the opening half with 10 disposals, five tackles and two goal assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prespakis got the ball rolling through the middle with a team-high 12 disposals and four clearances, despite dealing with some close attention from Sydney’s on-ballers, while Evie Cowcher and Becky Webster combined for nine intercept possessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the season on the line entering the second half, Geelong once again got off to the perfect start on the back of a tremendous play from Chloe Scheer, who took an impressive contested mark and drilled the set-shot to snatch the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But once again, the Swans found the answers after the Cats’ hot start and gained the ascendancy right back, but the margin still remained at a manageable 10 points with everything to play for at three quarter time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On this occasion however, it was Sydney who made the perfect start to the fourth term, breaking out of the centre clearance and hitting the scoreboard to increase their lead in just 20 seconds of play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the game seemingly slipping away, Scheer and Jackie Parry kicked a pair of timely goals to pull the Cats right back into the contest, ratcheting up the intensity around GMHBA Stadium as time ticked down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geelong continued to fight until the final siren, pressing inside 50 on multiple occasions but they could not find the knockout blow, falling three points short in a remarkable contest at GMHBA Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2026 AFLW Season – Semi-Final<\/p>\n
GEELONG CATS\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1.0\u00a0 \u00a03.2\u00a0 \u00a05.4\u00a0 \u00a07.5\u00a0 \u00a0(47)
SYDNEY SWANS\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02.1\u00a0 \u00a04.1\u00a0 \u00a07.2\u00a0 \u00a08.2\u00a0 \u00a0(50)<\/p>\n
GOALS\u00a0
Geelong Cats: Scheer 3, Moloney, Mason, Bowen, Parry 1
Sydney Swans: Molloy 3, Hamilton 2, Quinn, Pullar, Cooper 1<\/p>\n
BEST
Geelong:\u00a0Bowen, Prespakis, Morrison, Emonson, Webster, Parry\u00a0
Sydney:\u00a0Molloy, Fish, Quinn, Kennedy, Ham, Gardiner<\/p>\n
INJURIES
Geelong: McDonald (hamstring), Kearns (hip), Dunlop (head)
Sydney:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
Crowd: 5656 at GMHBA Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong’s 2026 campaign has drawn to a close with the Cats eliminated from the AFLW Finals series, falling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-964144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","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\/964144","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=964144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}