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The coaching decisions permitting the best of Geelong's star duo
Jaiden Sciberras • June 19th, 2025 6:03 pm
Bailey Smith and Max Holmes have exploded in 2025, rapidly ascending into one of the competition’s premier duos.
Utilising their explosive run and carry, the pair have gelled as well as any, combining for a ridiculous competition-high 1284 metres gained per game to go with 59 disposals, 13 score involvements, 10 clearances and nine tackles from the Cats’ engine room.
That being said, the duo wouldn’t have experienced the freedom and success that they’ve been afforded had it not been for the work of their teammates around the ground.
Speaking on AFL 360 on Monday night, Geelong coach Chris Scott revealed that despite their success in the midfield, he is still on the fence regarding the best position for the two players.
“We really like that they are basically the same age,” Scott told AFL 360.
“They had some similarities in terms of their ability to run and genuine speed.
“I didn’t quite see the combination panning out this way. We’re not even that sure that their best position is on ball, but the two of them in there in the moment are a good combination.
“They’re enjoying it and they’re doing some things that I didn’t necessarily foresee. Maybe our list management team and our recruiters saw it a bit better than I did.”
Crediting Geelong’s coaching system and the importance of the side’s role players, former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley believes that the success of Smith and Holmes goes beyond their natural ability.
“I think that Chris (Scott) and his coaching group do a lot to allow their players’ natural strengths to pop within the system that they create,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“The use of (Oisin) Mullin and (Mark) O’Connor, (Tom) Atkins has been as consistent as any as a contested bull inside.
“I think (Scott) knows that nominally, they are midfielders, but they do their best work not in the five-metre radius of where a clearance is but outside of that, so they allow the game to be set up so that it maximises their strengths.
“I think Atkins doing what he does inside, and the courage to say that we’ll run with a few here, we’ll trust Atkins, we’ll set the game up in chaos so that we bring our runners into it, and we’ll leave Patty (Dangerfield) forward (is what makes it work).
“They had probably three or four opportunities in games, in selection, to think ‘move the Dangerfield magnet into the middle because he’s going to help us thicken the soup’.
“They said, ‘no, we’ll leave him (forward) because we think that’s going to be better for us’.
“A lot of really good coaching decisions around finding better, not going back to what you know, and I think that is an elite trait for Chris Scott and the Geelong coaching group.
“Holmes was a gun at the end of ‘22 playing off the wing. ‘Hoyney’ (Daniel Hoyne, Champion Data) was talking about him as the highest ranked player in the competition for the last 12 games and for him to do his hammy going into that Grand Final was tragic for him. He’s shown some resilience, he’s up and about and on his way.
“We’ve created the duo though, haven’t we? Geelong wouldn’t have gone in saying here’s our duo. They wouldn’t separate them from (Marc) Blicavs or (Oliver) Dempsey or (Gryan) Miers or the roles that they play.
“I don’t think they would put Smith and Holmes as the dynamic duo on a pedestal at Geelong. We look at them as a pair, and they will forever be linked and if they’re the same age and they continue to play consistently good footy.”
The Cats are set to take on the Brisbane Lions in a September preview this Friday night.
