JULY was once termed "big boy month" in the AFL fixture, and Brisbane has started it with a bang.

An eight-goal opening term against Geelong away at GMHBA Stadium has set up a statement 22-point victory.

CATS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats

But the impressive 19.9 (123) to 14.17 (101) win came at a cost, with key back Darcy Gardiner suffering what appears to be a hamstring injury, while Zac Bailey's night ended late in the fourth with hamstring tightness.

It was an old-fashioned, see-sawing shootout between two of the most dominant forces of recent years, with heroes and villains aplenty. 

Brisbane managed to crack the ton in the third term but scoring slowed in the fourth.

Chris Fagan likened the recent top-flight rivalry between the two sides as that of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. We'll leave it to you to decide which team is the classy Swiss and which is the tenacious Spaniard.

Two centre clearances and it was two goals for Charlie Cameron in the opening two minutes of the game, the Lions flying across a fairly wet deck, sodden by constant rain over the hours pre-match.

Connor O'Sullivan had a nightmare skill error, his 15m pass across goal sailing over Zach Guthrie's outstretched hands and into the waiting lap of Levi Ashcroft, summing up the horror opening term perfectly.

Six inside 50s, six goals, first set 6-0 Brisbane's way (until Logan Morris' second pushed it out to seven goals from seven inside 50s, somewhat ruining the analogy).

It was stunning, scintillating footy from Brisbane, coming hot on the heels of a return to form by knocking off fellow pacesetter Sydney. Meanwhile, Geelong may as well have still been on the beaches of Western Australia, as many players were during last week's bye.

It took an extraordinary effort from Patrick Dangerfield in the dying seconds of the first term for the Cats to finally record their opening major, coming after five behinds of their own and an astonishing eight straight goals for Brisbane.

But if the first quarter was 6-0, the second was 0-6.

By three minutes into the second term, the Cats had caught up with the Lions' scoring shots, but still trailed by 34 points, such was their inaccuracy – but the tide was beginning to turn.

Dangerfield kicked another classic curler and Shannon Neale managed to accidentally boot one from nearly 80m, while Brisbane's dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale was sent from the field by the umpires to have a SCAT after an accidental knee to the head.

In all, Geelong had managed to haul in the 43-point lead to trail by just seven at the main break, Brisbane having its turn to fluff its lines in front of goals and kicking 1.6 for the second term.

It was clear we were going to a fifth set.

The Cats closed to just one point, before the dual reigning premier Brisbane's run-and-carry game clicked back into place, flicking handballs and sending the ball over Geelong's vaunted defence, with Zac Bailey and Kai Lohmann causing chaos.

Darcy Wilmot took an incredible, old-school speccy late in the third term and it barely seemed out of the ordinary, such was the heaving highlight reel already cut to that point.

Oisin Mullin tried to get Geelong's fourth-term comeback started with an early goal, but Brisbane wisely ate up plenty of the fourth term with slower ball movement, Lohmann kicking his fifth in the process.

Will Ashcroft was a very steady performer across all four quarters, Lachie Neale was busy despite his second-term absence and while Tom Stewart found the footy, Conor McKenna blunted his aerial impact.

Jeremy Cameron's frustrating 2026 continued, managing just four disposals and looking well off the pace as he continues to battle with his previously broken arm.

Danger turns back the clock. Again.
You'd be forgiven for thinking surely, surely, that at the age of 36, Patrick Dangerfield has had enough of putting on the Superman cape. But it's not how the Geelong skipper is wired. All five of his goals were from the very top shelf. He was throwing himself at the ball like a player half his age (at 19, Levi Ashcroft nearly is), took an insane, vertical mark back with the flight, and played like a man possessed. While quieter in the fourth term as the ball was camped further afield, he was still Geelong's best.

Neale's umpire-enforced HIA
We haven't seen too many players sent from the field of play for an ARC-ordered head injury assessment, but the system seemed to work as required in the second term. Lachie Neale had been accidentally collected by a knee in a centre stoppage, and was noticeably dazed for a minute, but initially shook off the Brisbane physio. With play stopped a few minutes later for a throw-in, the umpire in charge received a message to send Neale from the field of play. The Lion – whose future beyond this season remains up in the air – exchanged words with a Geelong fan on his way around the boundary, but returned after passing the test.

GEELONG   1.5   7.11   11.14   14.17 (101)
BRISBANE      8.0   9.6   17.8   19.9 (123)

GOALS
Geelong: Dangerfield 5, Neale 3, Martin 2, Dempsey 2, Wiltshire, Mullin
Brisbane: Lohmann 5, Morris 3, Bailey 3, Cameron 2, McKenna 2, L.Ashcroft, Dunkley, Rayner, Fort

BEST
Geelong: Dangerfield, Holmes, Smith, Dempsey, Stewart
Brisbane: W.Ashcroft, Neale, Lohmann, Bailey, Draper, Dunkley 

INJURIES
Geelong: Nil
Brisbane: Gardiner (hamstring), Bailey (hamstring tightness) 

Crowd: 26,741 at GMHBA Stadium