In 1896, delegates from the stronger and wealthier VFA clubs — Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne — met to form a breakaway competition and in 1897, the Victorian Football League ( VFL ), was born as an eight-team competition.

Essendon's first VFL game was in 1897 was against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong.

A year later war broke out and the competition was considerably weakened, with Geelong being forced to pull out of the competition due to travel restrictions as a result of petrol rationing.

' King Richard ' was powerless to prevent the inevitable, although leading at half time, the Geelong kicked five goals to three points in the third quarter to set up victory by 11 points.

The season was soured by three 63-point defeats, two to Hawthorn and another by Fremantle at Subiaco Oval ( this occurring after the second of those hidings by Hawthorn ) plus a 50 point hiding from eventual premiers Geelong ( for which captain Matthew Lloyd was suspended ).

The Geelong Football Club was formally established at a meeting held in the Victoria Hotel on 18 July 1859.

The Geelong Football Club was among the most powerful in the VFA ( Victorian Football Association ), winning seven VFA premierships up to the birth of the VFL ( Victorian Football League ) in 1897.

Geelong was the only non-Melbourne-based team at a time when a trip from Geelong to Melbourne involved quite an arduous journey.

It was alleged that saboteurs attempted to destroy one of the special trains carrying Geelong supporters to the match in South Melbourne.

Bob Davis acknowledges the possibility that had Coleman played, Essendon may well have won, given that Geelong had no true match for him, as Coleman was simply too skilled.

During this time, HMBB was the first company to assemble bodies for Ford Australia until their Geelong, plant was completed.

He grew up on the family's pastoral properties and was educated at Glamorgan ( now part of Geelong Grammar School ) and Melbourne Grammar School, before completing a degree in philosophy, politics and economics (" Modern Greats ") at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1952, where he became friendly with future Canadian Prime Minister John Turner.

However, in 2006 the Victorian Auditor General noted that in spite of $ 750 million spent, " We found that the delivery of more frequent fast rail services in the Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo corridors by the agreed dates was not achieved.

The concept was developed in 1933 by Lewis Bandt of the Ford Motor Company in Geelong following a request from a Gippsland farmer's wife for a vehicle that they could go to church in on Sunday without getting wet and also use to take the pigs to market on Monday.

Two weeks later Carey was irrepressible in the preliminary final against Geelong.

He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School ( where he was a class mate of Errol Flynn ) and Geelong Grammar School, and then traveled to England to attend Brasenose College, Oxford.

Geelong was named in 1827 by Governor Richard Burke, with the name derived from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong, thought to mean ' land ' or ' cliffs '.

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 Australian Football League club, Geelong, has been nicknamed the " Cats " since 1923 after a suggestion by The Herald newspaper that a black cat would give the unsuccessful team more luck.

Geelong has ever since been known as the Cats.

Prior to then, Essendon had ( and still have ) one of the worst records amongst current AFL clubs against Geelong in recent times, having only beaten the Cats once since 2003.

** West Adelaide Bearcats defeated the Geelong Cats 80-74 in the final.

The team's second ever win in a finals match qualified them for a semifinal to be played against the Geelong Cats at the MCG the following week.

Ablett's individual accolades and achievements include induction into the AFL's Hall of Fame, selection in the AFL Team of the Century, selection in the Geelong Football Club Team of the Century, the 1993 AFLPA MVP award ( now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy ), three Coleman Medals, four All-Australian jumpers, eleven State representative jumpers for Victoria, selection in the Victorian Team of the Century, a Norm Smith Medal, a Carji Greeves Medal as the 1984 Geelong Best & Fairest Player, and being the leading goal-kicker for the Cats on nine occasions.

Although figuring amongst his team's best with three goals, Ablett's performance in the Qualifying Final was not enough as Essendon humbled Geelong by 76 points to force the Cats into a sudden-death Semi Final showdown with Melbourne.

A behind-the-play incident involving Nathan Burke of St Kilda during the Cats ' Elimination Final triumph over the Saints saw Ablett suspended by the AFL Tribunal for two weeks, with Geelong subsequently losing to the season's two eventual Grand Finalists – Hawthorn in the 2nd Semi-Final and West Coast at Waverley Park in the Preliminary Final – and prematurely ending Ablett's year.

The Geelong Cats CEO Brian Cook announced that the club did not have the money to fund the extra $ 12 million for the originally planned expansion.

The highest crowd to ever attend an event at Kardinia Park was an Australian Rules Football match between the Geelong Cats and the Collingwood Magpies on the 30 August 1952, 49, 109 attended.

In September, 500 Geelong Cats supporters were delayed an hour to the MCG for the Saints – Cats clash due to a faulty V / Line train.

While the Cats eventually made it to the Grand Final, they lost that match and it was a sad tale of Brownless ' career that he played in four losing Grand Final teams with Geelong.

* Geelong Cats, an Australian football league team

While playing for the Cats, Graham attended Deakin University in Geelong.

He kicked a bag of goals in that game and in Round 20, against the Geelong Cats, he kicked five goals and one behind.

It was created and named in honour of Charles Brownlow, a former Geelong Football Club footballer ( 1880 – 1891 ) and club secretary ( 1885 – 1923 ), and VFL president ( 1918 – 19 ), who had died in January 1924 after an extended illness.

Greeves played with the Geelong Football Club from 1923 – 31 and wore jumper number 20.

However, after a fiery encounter with Hawthorn ended in a convincing defeat, the Bombers were no match for Geelong next week.

Formed in 1859, Geelong is the second oldest club in the AFL after Melbourne and one of the oldest football clubs in the world.

For many years the Geelong Football Club were known as the Pivotonians, after the city's nickname ' The Pivot '.

The VFL / AFL's award for the fairest and best player in a season is named after Charles Brownlow, a Geelong and VFL administrator who died in early 1924.

He played a lone hand up forward with 14 marks, of which 10 were contested, 24 disposals and 6 goals, to once again have the scores level at full time, before Geelong won by a goal, kicked after the final siren by Gary Ablett.

For many years, 3GL was based in James Street Geelong but relocated after being granted the right to convert to the FM band in 1990.

However, Collingwood was then beaten by Geelong by 38 points in the decider, after trailing by seven points at three-quarter time.

Geelong won by 3 points, after a controversial advantage was not paid to Magpie Scott Pendlebury in the dying minutes.

The courage, resource and bushmanship of Hume were important factors in surmounting their many difficulties, and after a journey of 11 weeks they came to Corio Bay near the present site of Geelong.

At the start of the 2009 season Wallace was still under pressure after Richmond's 83 point loss against Carlton in Round 1 and further losses to Geelong, the Western Bulldogs and cellar-dwellars Melbourne.

Fremantle made it into the 2012 finals after finishing the regular season in 7th position and had to play the reigning premiers, Geelong, at the MCG in an elimination final.

Campino was twice hospitalised after concerts in Byron Bay and Geelong in Australia.

This came after Hawthorn rushed a record 11 behinds against Geelong in the 2008 AFL Grand Final, and eventually won the premiership by 26 points.

On the recruiting front, prior to the 2000 season, Sheedy lured ruckman John Barnes back to Essendon ( a side that had traded him many years earlier ) after he was let go by Geelong.

O ' Connor had caused some controversy after first being elected to Council in November 2004 when he claimed that he had not spoken to prominent Geelong businessman and ( then ) Geelong Football Club President, Frank Costa.

It then follows Curzon Street after leaving the central business district to enter North Melbourne, and then follows Flemington Road northwest from Curzon Street, then Racecourse Road, Smithfield Road and Ballarat Road, in that order, before it starts again as Geelong Road where Geelong Road branches southwest off Ballarat Road, and Ballarat Road leads onto the Western Freeway.

Greeves was honoured with having the Geelong Football Club's Best and Fairest award named after him, the Carji Greeves Medal.

The venue also hosted Tasmania's two finals matches, with the elimination win against Geelong ( 4, 800 ) and the massive 10, 073 for the semi final against Port Melbourne, which the Devils lost after squandering a 23 point lead at three quarter time.