History Books Rewritten By Geelong

The Grand Final on 26th September, 2009, goes down in football history as one of the sport's Greatest Games. Aussie Rules Football is a significant part of Australian culture, but the Geelong Cats wrote themselves into the history books.

Geelong's victory, by 12 points over the St Kilda Saints, was the zenith of a star-studded season, having surpassed Collingwood’s 1927/29 all-time three year winning percentage of 86.9% wins. Geelong not only took its second premiership in three years; it also clocked up its 63rd win in its last 70 games, (90% wins).

Geelong's present run far excels its last great era, of 1951/2 when the team had 23 consecutive wins.

Geelong is the only team since Essendon in 1984, to come from behind at the three quarter mark to win. In spite of their brilliant three year performance, as short a time as a month ago, there were many people who had written Geelong off, as being a non-premiership competitor.

Though the Cats were in their third consecutive Grand Final, the majority of the Saints players were first time Grand Finalists. It was always expected, therefore, that the only thing that would separate the two well-matched sides, would be the experience of the Cats, to give them the slight winning edge.

This proved to be the case, as the nail biting score clawed its way up, matched point by point. The Final being a replay of when the two teams had met in round 14, when they were separated by just one goal at the final siren.

Since beating Collingwood in 1966, the Saints have been 44 years without a premiership win. The Saints have won 6 Grand Final games: 1913, 1965, 1966, 1971, 1997 and 2009.

Geelong, on the other hand, is one of the oldest football clubs and has gone under the various names of the Geelong Seagulls, Pivotonians and Black Cats. The popular Browlow Medal for best player of the season was named after a former Geelong secretary, Charles Browlow.

Tom W Wills, of Geelong, is regarded by many, as the founder of the game in 1856, just three years prior to the creation of the Geelong club. Since then Geelong has won eight Grand Finals: 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, and 2009.

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