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Head v heart: How Dogs must approach their clash with Smith and Cats
Jaiden Sciberras • May 21st, 2025 10:12 am
This Thursday’s clash between Geelong and the Western Bulldogs presents as more than a battle between two top sides.
The well-documented off-field conflict between Cats recruit Bailey Smith and his former club has had the prime-time contest highlighted on calendars for some time.
Smith’s recent jab towards the Dogs’ crowd in Ballarat further sparked the potential spectacle.
With reports suggesting Smith’s comments ruffled feathers within the Bulldog camp, backed by comments made by captain Marcus Bontempelli on breakfast television in the aftermath, Thursday’s game is destined to feature significant heat from the first bounce.
With that being said, Luke Hodge believes the Bulldogs need to put the comments aside and stick to playing the football that has served them so well this year and at GMHBA Stadium in the past.
“This is a head versus heart conversation inside at the Doggies,” Hodge told SEN’s Whateley.
“We all know the emotions, and the passion takes over especially when you’ve got a bloke who wears his heart on his sleeve like ‘Libba’ (Tom Liberatore), you’ve got ‘Bont’ there, both have been greats of the Western Bulldogs, so it will be hard for them.
“The hard part is not getting overawed by your emotions. You’re going down to the Cattery, you’re coming up against a former teammate who was so good for you, who they had a tight bond with, but then since he’s left it seems as though he’s ruffled a few feathers, both on and off the field.
“I think mentally for the Dogs, they don’t need the chat, because they’ve beaten the Cats. They beat the Cats down at the Cattery last year. Their game style matches up well against the Cats, matches up well down at the Cattery because it’s a narrow ground.
“The teams that really struggle down there are the teams that like to possess it by foot, because you get strangled in and you turn it over.
“They like to link up with hands. I think last time they played down there they had 50 more handballs than the Cats and broke the game open by going that way."
The last time the two sides faced off at GMHBA in Round 19 last year, the Bulldogs won the contest by 47 points, finishing +60 in disposals and +47 in handballs resulting in +22 inside 50s while holding the Cats to just 48 points total.
Referring to the emotional side of the game, Hodge likened the clash to Hawthorn's matchup with Port Adelaide - a heated contest that saw the Power run rampant at home.
“The entertaining side of me wants to see Libba go straight up to Bailey and give it to him for four quarters like we know that Libba can," Hodge added.
“But if I was 'Bevo' (Luke Beveridge), you don’t want to play the game down because you saw the emotion of Hawthorn versus Port Adelaide.
“Hawthorn went in with a really calm, ‘let’s just focus on football’ because they were in a really good position. Port Adelaide went in with a really emotional, ‘let’s target them, we hate them’, and they came out and pounced on the Hawks.
“So Bevo needs to make sure that the Dogs are still on edge, ready to go, ready for a massive contest because the Cats will come, but they can’t get overawed, they can’t give away dumb free kicks, they can’t see Bailey as a target and solely focus on him because the Cats have a lot of quality players.
“You’ve got to go with your head on this one and play your style of football because we’ve seen it down there, their style is good enough to beat the Cats, especially when they’ve got a big fella like Patrick Dangerfield who is out.”
Smith was not present at Geelong's main training session on Tuesday, instead he was training indoors on a managed program.
Thursday night’s clash at GMHBA Stadium, which marks Mitch Duncan's 300th game, is set for 7:30pm AEST.
