Leigh Matthews names his “champion club” of the century
VFL/AFL great Leigh Matthews has named Geelong as his champion club of the century so far.
Despite coaching the Brisbane Lions to a three-peat in the early 2000s, Matthews believes the Cats have been the most successful club of the 21st century.
In the last two decades, Geelong has won three premierships (2007, 2009 and 2011) to sit alongside the Lions and Richmond (2017, 2019 and 2020), but behind Hawthorn on four (2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015).
Even without claiming the most flags in that time, he sees Geelong as the champion club, while reserving special praise for the Sydney Swans who have won two premierships (2005 and 2012).
“Three categories - playing in a finals series, how many games you’ve won in the last 20 years and how many premierships you’ve won,” he said on Sportsday.
“Geelong probably come out on top on that. They’ve played in 16 finals series, Sydney have played in 17.
“Geelong have had 315 wins, Sydney have had 279. Now in premierships, Hawthorn have won the four premierships from five Grand Finals, but in that category Geelong have won three from five Grand Finals.
“To me, not much doubt that the Cats have been the champion club so far and I’m talking club, not team, a whole club - this century.
“Geelong and Sydney, two outstanding clubs so far this century.”
Matthews says the longevity of the Cats puts them above any other club.
“Geelong have been outstanding pretty much the whole century,” he added.
“The last time they had a losing season, lost more games (than they won), was 2006.
“They keep doing it by recruiting well, developing well and coaching well. You’ve got to do the whole lot together to get the best out of the players.
“Both Geelong and Sydney have never gone down to the bottom to rebuild back up. They just keep doing the job.”
Matthews concedes there have already been three ‘dynasty’ sides so far this century - Hawthorn, Geelong and Richmond - and says current premier Melbourne has plenty of work to do before joining that echelon.
“As we know, plenty of clubs have won one premiership,” he said.
“It’s hard to win two, real hard to win three. I guess the dynasty thing and the teams that have won three in a short period of time have been Hawthorn, Geelong and Richmond just recently.
“Melbourne are a long, long way from actually doing that yet.
“Dynasty is a retrospective word.”