Geelong Football Club

The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with three in the AFL era (since 1990). Geelong has also won nine McClelland Trophies, a record it shares with Essendon.

Formed in 1859, Geelong is the second oldest club in the AFL after Melbourne and one of the oldest football clubs in the world. Along with its AFL team, the club also fields a stand-alone team in the Victoria Football league (VFL).

The club participated in the first football competition in Australia, winning the second season in 1863, was a foundation Victorian Football Association (VFA) and the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897.

An early VFL powerhouse with six premierships up to 1963, Geelong developed a reputation as an under-achieving club. Despite playing in five losing Grand Finals, four between 1989–1995, its fans waited 44 years until it won another premiership—an AFL-record 119-point victory in the 2007 AFL Grand Final. Despite recording the most successful home and away season in the game's history, the club went one win short of back-to-back premierships in losing the 2008 AFL Grand Final, but won the 2009 Grand Final against St Kilda. This was followed up with another Grand Final victory, in 2011 against Collingwood. With three premierships since 2000, they are the equal-most successful side of the 21st century along with the Brisbane Lions.

Geelong holds a number of league records including the longest winning streak in AFL/VFL history (23 games); the most goals kicked in a single game (on two occasions - 37.17 (239) against Brisbane in 1992 and 37.11 (233) against Melbourne in 2011); the highest score recorded in a single game (37.17 (239) against Brisbane in 1992; the highest-ever aggregate season total for points scored (3,334 points in 1992); the record for restricting an opponent to the lowest ever score in a game (St Kilda 0.1 (1) in 1899); the most consecutive 100-point victories (3 games in a row, in 1989); the longest winning streak in interstate games (12 games) and achieved the longest home ground winning streak in VFL/AFL history—29 games straight at Simonds Stadium (also known as Kardinia Park). It is the only team to have had nine players selected in a single All-Australian team (2007). In 2009, Geelong became the only club to win more than 18 games in three successive seasons (2007–2009). They are also the only club in the league to have never finished lower than 12th position (which has only been possible since the league's expansion in 1987).

The club's home is the 31,000-seat football stadium Kardinia Park (currently also known by its sponsorship name as "Simonds Stadium"). However the club also hosts home matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Docklands Stadium (currently also known by its sponsorship name as "Etihad Stadium"). The club's traditional guernsey colours are white guernseys with navy blue hoops, white shorts and navy and white hooped socks and the team song is "We Are Geelong". The club's nickname, the "Cats", was first used in 1923 after a run of losses prompted a local cartoonist to suggest that the club needed a black cat to bring it good luck.