Before Geelong, town and team, were fashionable, the Cats vainly tried to lure a player from a Melbourne club down the highway.

It was 2006, the year of living dangerously for Mark Thompson, who survived a prolonged review that can be seen as the beginning of what you could call “the Ling dynasty”, which, in turn, seamlessly became the Geelong empire under Chris Scott.

Chris Scott has established an empire.Credit: Eddie Jim

Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking, then working in the club’s football department (head of training services), recalled a left-field request from the prospective recruit.

“The player was happy to sign here,” said Hocking, adding the crucial caveat. “… and sign a contract that actually included a driver and car as part of that.

“And that was sort of where we were back then.”

Today, prized players are driving down the Princes Freeway, and up from the Bellarine Peninsula and surf coast, to play – often at discounted rates – for the club that has appeared in 14 preliminary finals, and won four flags (with a fifth on the line on Saturday), since that less-than-driven player spurned the Cats.

No chauffeurs are needed in Geelong’s roaring ’20s.

Geelong fans express their love for Jeremy Cameron at Friday’s grand final parade.Credit: Eddie Jim

Geelong, by many measures, have transformed into the club with the most advantages – for the purpose of winning games – in the competition. The record shows that they alone have utterly defied the socialised cycles of the draft and salary cap – plus the perennial pitfalls of hubris and complacency.

As the sole regional club in the AFL, they are the only Victorian club with their own stadium/ground, on which they train and play (10 times a season) and win.

They are untroubled in attracting and retaining elite players, aided by free agency. They are part of a region with an exploding population, benefiting from the strength of their region’s footy culture and from harvesting tens of millions of dollars in local, federal and especially state government funding for their grandstands and facilities.

Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Hawthorn constitute the Broadway clubs (for players who want massive MCG crowds and bright lights), while the northern clubs are what I term the “Getaway clubs” (for players such as Tony Lockett, Lance Franklin, Joe Daniher, who crave privacy).

Then, there’s the Perth and Adelaide quartet, who primarily appeal to players from those states, and the challenged smaller Melbourne teams – who simply have to create the best possible environment.

That leaves Geelong, home alone, as the regional power – a hybrid of Broadway and Getaway; big enough to sate player egos and far enough away for Bailey Smith, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Ablett jnr and

© WA Today