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“Quite incorrect”: Mannagh breaks misconception around Geelong’s culture
Nicholas Quinlan • September 20th, 2025 6:15 pm
Geelong’s Shaun Mannagh has given insight into Geelong’s famed culture that has once again helped them reach the Grand Final following their 30-point win against Hawthorn on Friday night.
It was just two years ago that Mannagh was playing in the VFL Grand Final for Werribee, where he kicked six goals to win the Norm Goss Memorial Medal.
Following that performance, the Cats would select him in the national draft as a 26-year-old, and since then, he has been an integral part of the side who are now in their seventh Grand Final in the space of 18 years.
Much of that success has been placed on Geelong’s culture by managing players on an individual basis and allowing them more freedom when it comes to their preparations.
However, Mannagh made the point of highlighting that while some of what is reported is correct, there are some misconceptions about how much the players, particularly the younger ones, spend at the club.
“It’s been touched on quite a bit for a while now that we’re not there that much,” Mannagh said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
“That’s quite incorrect.
“Obviously, some boys (who) have been in the league a long time, like your Paddy Dangerfield’s, Jez (Cameron), Rhys Stanley, these guys, they know what it takes.
“There’s a good core group of us who are in the 22 to 29 (years of age) range that are in there a lot of the time.
“And then we’ve got the younger boys, our first to third/fourth years, who are there a lot more than anyone else as well.
“I don’t think it is any one individual driving that standard, there is a lot of coaches as well who have got a lot of buy-in from our development coaches Nigel Lappin (and) Mark Corrigan, all our assistant coaches James Rahilly (and) James Kelly.
“I think we’ve got a group of eight of us that go in most off days to do a touch (session) with James Kelly, and that group seems to be growing more and more each week, which has been amazing.
“It’s just little things like that you want to be touching the footy as much as possible throughout the week, especially as we have two days off now.
“And these young guys that come in, they’ve come from being the best players in Talent League or wherever they have come from, and they have been driving the standards for a long time.
“So most of them come in and they are pretty professional as it is, so they kind of jump in and learn from guys like Tom Atkins, Gyran Miers and Jack Bowes who have been in the league a while.”
Geelong won’t officially begin their preparation for the Grand Final until Monday, when they will hold their open training session at GMHBA Stadium.
