“We felt he [Lobb] had a big say in swinging the game for us,” Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.

“I felt early in the year playing him as a forward, we missed out on capitalising on his work rate and him getting himself into space at different times, but he went through a period where the balance of his game was a little bit off. But he’s been pretty resilient. He went back and played twos footy for two weeks ... and since he’s come back into the team he’s been really solid.”

Beveridge said there was no doubt the group would be barracking for the Blues to beat the Giants on Sunday.

“We’ve done all we can tonight,” he said. “We’ll watch it. You ride your luck, whether you get a bit lucky tomorrow. It’s a 50-50 game, both teams have been very good throughout the course of the year and we’ll see how it goes.

“Ultimately, we needed one or two more [wins] to feel safe, and I’d be feeling better about it if that was the case.”

A glimpse into future

Although without Jeremy Cameron, Tom Hawkins, Brad Close, Mitch Duncan and Mark Blicavs, the Cats were full of energy, kicking the first two goals of the game and dominating the territory battle.

Ollie Henry, who went into the game with 38 goals from 21 games, gave the Cats a target inside-50, alongside the 203-centimetre fifth-gamer Shannon Neale.

Neale kicked his first AFL goal midway through the centre quarter, and seven minutes later, Oliver Dempsey - in his seventh game - kicked his second career goal to provide a spark for the home side.

Mitch Knevitt had a quiet game and was subbed out at three-quarter-time in his 10th match, but young ruckman Toby Conway showed positive signs on debut, up against this year’s likely All-Australian ruckman in English.

Cats coach Chris Scott said he was optimistic about his side competing against the top teams next year.

“There are some things we clearly need to work on and get better at, but there are so many reasons to think we’ll be better next year if we get a bit of a better run and handle a little bit differently, and some individuals can get closer to their best footy,” he said.

“But it’s always a silver lining when you’re in that position that you get to see some different players and expose some guys that otherwise wouldn’t be able to force their way into the team.”

But the reliance on Geelong’s more experienced players did not go unnoticed. Norm Smith medallist Isaac Smith was prolific in his final game of footy, finishing with an equal career-high 36 disposals, while retiring journeyman Sam Menegola – in his first match for the season – also had plenty of the footy.

Scott said his club would be in a unique position in his time at the club where they would be able to complete a longer pre-season, and he conceded consecutive shorter pre-seasons had compounded into their fall out of the eight this year.

As for their list strategy, Scott said the club would simply go about making sure their squad was as competitive as possible next year, adding that he expected both Tom Hawkins and Zach Tuohy to play on in 2024.

Attempted screamer

Exaggerations are often made when it comes to near misses for Mark of the Year, but Ollie Henry may have produced one of the great speckies, only to not bring down the ball.

It was 14 minutes into the second quarter when he rose over a pack in the centre of the ground and got a lift on the back of Rory Lobb, and he hung up there for what seemed an eternity before falling on his back.

It had shades of Jeremy Howe’s vertical leap with Gary Moorcroft’s fall, but Henry never really got close to grasping the footy.

Aaron Naughton took a decent mark in a similar spot about 10 minutes later, while Henry had another attempt at a screamer deep in the second quarter but didn’t get near the footy.

WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.1 6.2 10.5 16.8 (104)
GEELONG 2.5 7.11 10.13 11.13 (79)

GOALS
WESTERN BULLDOGS: Lobb 3, Naughton 3, Weightman 2, Treloar 2, English 2, Vandermeer, Poulter, Liberatore, Ugle-Hagan
GEELONG: O.Henry 3, Stengle 2, Smith, Neale, Myers, Dempsey, Dangerfield, Atkins

BEST
WESTERN BULLDOGS: Lobb, Liberatore, Treloar, Naughton, Bontempelli, English
GEELONG: Smith, Stewart, Menegola, Parfitt, Dangerfield

VOTES
Rory Lobb (Western Bulldogs) 8
Tom Liberatore (Western Bulldogs) 7
Adam Treloar (Western Bulldogs) 7
Aaron Naughton (Western Bulldogs) 7
Isaac Smith (Geelong) 6