WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n From early in the second quarter to midway through the third term, Geelong booted eight goals to Sydney\u2019s one \u2014 the lone Swans major to Isaac Heeney on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n That included a one-sided second quarter where the Cats had 23 inside 50s to Sydney\u2019s six, with the Cats failing to put their dominance on the scoreboard with 5.6.<\/p>\n However, the Swans didn\u2019t relent as they made the most of their opportunities and showed their offensive flare, slotting five of the next six goals to finish the third term to keep the packed 35,869 crowd on edge.<\/p>\n But quickly the Cats eased the nerves of the home fans as Jeremy Cameron kicked his third goal and Patrick Dangerfield slotted a set-shot from right on the boundary inside the first five minutes of the last.<\/p>\n Brad Close of the Cats. Picture: Robert Cianflone\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n The final margin flattered the Swans, who were forced into errors by the Cats\u2019 relentless pressure throughout the match and had 24 less inside 50s.<\/p>\n The Cats managed to even up the clearance battle despite a big mismatch on paper. In a coming of age performance, young ruck Mitch Edwards managed to keep the top ruck in the competition Brodie Grundy in check as the Cats had a shopping list of contributors.<\/p>\n Max Holmes amassed a game-high 35 disposals, Lawson Humphries played his best in Cats colours in the Indigenous guernsey he helped design, Bailey Smith fought through a tag magnificently, and Cameron roamed all over the ground and kicked three goals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels really good. Starting to string together some really good games, but at the end of the day you don\u2019t want to peak too early,\u201d Smith told Fox Footy post-game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just awesome listening to the crowd, we had 35,000 here today and couldn\u2019t have done it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n THE 3-2-1 \u2026<\/p>\n 3. \u2018PART OF MY EVOLUTION\u2019: SMITH\u2019S CAREER-BEST BLITZ \u2026 AND BRILLIANT INTERVIEW<\/p>\n We saw the best of Bailey Smith the footballer in-game \u2013 and then the best of Bailey Smith the person post-game.<\/p>\n Swans coach Dean Cox sent trusted negator James Jordon to Smith with great effect in the first half, limiting him to eight touches to half-time.<\/p>\n But when the Swans opted to start Jordon off the ground in the third quarter, Smith made them pay with almighty third term.<\/p>\n The Cats ball magnet racked up 15 disposals \u2013 11 of those handballs \u2013 in the first 21 minutes of the third quarter as Smith\u2019s relentless running got on top. His 15th disposal a snap goal.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s raised the level. He does the simple things well and occasionally does the unbelievable things. He is a machine,\u201d Fox Footy\u2019s Jordan Lewis said.<\/p>\n Smith finished with a whopping 18 disposals, seven score involvements and three clearances in the third quarter alone. It was the most disposals Smith has ever had in a single quarter of footy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was hard. I had James Jordon running with me \u2013 we were the same year level at school, he\u2019s a good man,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just part of my evolution as a player is learning to leverage a tag and see how we can better the team and displace what they want. I thought we did that in the third quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n It capped the latest strong performance from Smith, who\u2019s in the middle of a career purple patch.<\/p>\n Asked by Fox Footy\u2019s Sarah Jones post-match what he put his career-best form down to, a philosophical Smith said: \u201cI don\u2019t know. The people around me. I\u2019ve got a lot of people that ground me.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m separating my identity from who I am and what I do and distinguishing Bailey the footballer and Bailey the person. I\u2019m not putting too much weight into my performance and just taking it day by day. There\u2019s so much more to life than this game, so when you put it into perspective there\u2019s no pressure to play well, you just go out there and let it all out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a game at the end of the day, so if I play well or if I don\u2019t, who cares? Bailey the person is different to the player. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re around such a great group of boys and the club is so good at giving us time off and separating your personal life from being at the club, so it doesn\u2019t get monotonous. We just keep doing our thing, get to the beach everyday, coffee with Ollie Dempsey and the boys \u2013 it really grounds me.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s maturity impressed Fox Footy commentator Dwayne Russell.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been no birds from Bailey Smith this year, he hasn\u2019t rattled anyone\u2019s cage. He\u2019s just playing footy \u2013 and boy is he playing it well,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just been footy, footy and footy \u2013 he\u2019s on every billboard around the county. He\u2019s on more billboards than Sydney Sweeney.<\/p>\n \u201cBailey the footballer and Bailey the person have been exceptional this year, regardless of what you think of the past and how he\u2019s been judged. He is just playing good footy.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. DEFENDERS IN UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY<\/p>\n Connor O\u2019Sullivan \u2013 somehow \u2013 managed to slot his first goal of his AFL before his direct opponent Charlie Curnow kicked one in the match \u2014 a sign of just how impressive he was in his shutdown job.<\/p>\n When Geelong was on a tear in the third quarter, the young Cat snuck forward and managed to gather a loose ball, shrug a tackle and snap it through for his first AFL goal in game 37.<\/p>\n He had gotten close earlier in the season, and he celebrated the goal with gusto and was swamped by his teammates.<\/p>\n But his defensive effort against the dual Coleman medallist was the biggest highlight, keeping him to two goals and minimal impact outside the third term.<\/p>\n The Cats had kicked four consecutive behinds to start the second term before Lawson Humphries took matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n Humphries chopped off a risky kick from Tom McCartin into the middle and played on and roosted it on his right towards an open goal from inside the centre square.<\/p>\n The ball bounced twice in the Indigenous flag goalsquare for the proud Nyul Nyul, Oomiday, and Worrora man went through for a long-range goal. <\/p>\n Humphries celebrated by grabbing the jumper he helped design, Saltwater Stories\u2019 along with his sister, Meeza.<\/p>\n By the end of the game he was getting applauded each time he got the footy at Kardinia Park.<\/p>\n 1. HEENEY FIGHTS THROUGH MULLIN ATTENTION<\/p>\n On the other side of the ledger, Sydney\u2019s stars were stymied \u2014 with the exception of Isaac Heeney \u2014 as Connor O\u2019Sullivan nullified Charlie Curnow.<\/p>\n Heeney had the in-form tagger in the competition in Oisin Mullin hanging off him and he was the main Swan keeping them in the game when the Cats had complete control.<\/p>\n The blonde bombshell was the No.1 rated on the ground at halftime according to Champion Data with 14 disposals, nine contested possessions, six tackles, five clearances \u2013 four of those in the first quarter \u2013 and a goal on the stroke of halftime.<\/p>\n But Mullin did his best to run off the Swans star and impact.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is quick, and repeat efforts as well \u2013 that\u2019s the thing that Mullin does,\u201d Bulldogs games record-holder Brad Johnson said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll challenge you and tag and play tight and do all the defensive-natured things to the opposition\u2019s best player. But when he gets the opportunity, he goes and he goes hard forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We might just have a new premiership favourite. After making a big statement against Brisbane at the Gabba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6466,5004,13017,6505,1427,17047,14356,3945,17048,3948,4536,247,5009],"class_list":["post-17095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-august","tag-brodie-grundy","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-dean-cox","tag-geelong-cats","tag-golden-chance","tag-ladder-leaders","tag-live-updates","tag-mark-oconnor","tag-match-details","tag-opposition-players","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779538519_400_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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