Geelong recruit Bailey Smith to face Western Bulldogs in Thursday night blockbuster
Geelong is set for more big games in 2025, and one of them is a bumper match-up between Bailey Smith and the Western Bulldogs.
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Geelong recruit Bailey Smith is set to face his former side the Western Bulldogs in a Thursday night blockbuster at GMHBA Stadium as the Cats prepare for more big games in prime time.
The Cats are locked in to play three matches in the first 16 rounds in the marquee Thursday night timeslot, compared to just one in the entire 2024 season, with the full fixture to be unvailed by the AFL on Thursday.
One of those will be down at Kardinia Park as Smith faces his ex-teammates for the first time on the field.
Geelong will also kick off Opening Round and Gather Round, facing Brisbane in a season-opener and Adelaide as the first game of the South Australian spectacle.
Smith moved to Geelong in a three club meda trade on deadline day which also saw Jack Macrae join St Kilda and Matt Kennedy head to the Western Bulldogs.
Geelong coach Chris Scott has had the wood over Luke Beveridge in recent years but the Bulldogs upset the Cats at Kardinia Park last season, winning by 48 points in a wet-weather affair.
Smith thanked the Western Bulldogs — including Luke Beveridge and Marcus Bontempelli — in a heartfelt Instagram post last month.
The Cats will also play an additional game at GMHBA Stadium in 2025 with Essendon to play at the venue for the first time with the Joel Selwood Stand in tact.
This publication reported on Tuesday that the Cats had proposed to face at least one of the “big” Victorian clubs at Kardinia Park across a five-year period.
Richmond and Hawthorn both travelled down the highway in 2024, with the Saturday night Tigers clash in round 12 bringing in 31,054 spectators, while the Hawks clash had an attendance of 33,188.
The Cats averaged 31,667 fans at its nine GMHBA Stadium matches in 2023, compared to an average of 27,811 in 2019 in its last full season before the stage five project and Covid impacted crowd numbers.
Originally published as Geelong recruit Bailey Smith to face Western Bulldogs in Thursday night blockbuster
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