Victorious Smith has potshot at Dogs as Bevo ‘doesn’t bite’ on Cornes controversy

“Because that goal umpire was 30 centimetres away from that. If he can’t see or hear that, then something’s wrong. Like, the technology, please.

“I am prepared to say that, the edge technology ... show us that it works. Because they’re saying it works off sound.

“The goal umpire’s 30cm away from it. If he doesn’t think it hit the post – I back him over the technology anyway. And I might have a bit of inside information that it doesn’t work that well.”

Scott also appeared surprised to be asked a question about Bailey Smith’s shin injury, which the former Bulldog revealed to Fox Footy after the game.

Scott clarified that Smith himself had shared the information, and then asked Cats footy boss Andrew Mackie whether he had heard about it.

Scott then said if the coach and football manager hadn’t known about it, then the injury couldn’t have been too serious.

But he said Smith would have tried to play with a serious injury, given the occasion.

When pushed further by Seven reporter Mitch Cleary, Beveridge closed down his press conference.

“I know what you are trying to do, Mitch, and you’re not going to get me to bite,” he said before leaving the room.

Earlier, Beveridge was asked about the free-kick count falling Geelong’s way 26-12 and his thoughts on a decision to pay Geelong forward Ollie Dempsey a mark that looked to be over the boundary line in a tense last quarter. Dempsey followed up with a crucial goal.

“The out-of-bounds-on-the-full one? Critical part of the game. Lots of eyes on it,” Beveridge said.

“Other than that, as I always say, swings and roundabouts, they happen. No one’s sitting in our rooms thinking about the free-kick differential.”

Beveridge said there had never been any intention to target Smith.

“Personalities did not come into it,” Beveridge said. “I didn’t want us to go out there and be distracted.

“There is no point going over the top with a confrontational approach to something that we hadn’t done previously

“It wasn’t going to help. We assess things before the game every week. We say, ‘OK, this player here, that player there, they’re probably going to get a bit of the ball’.”

Beveridge said the Bulldogs had their hands full with Max Holmes and the Cats’ key forwards Jeremy Cameron and Shannon Neale, who booted 10 goals between them.

“We couldn’t clear the ball from those one-on-one areas to resurrect the footy,” he said.

“And they got, you know, too many sort of tap-in goals from those, those long-range plays where we needed to be better at not letting it out the back. We didn’t defend well.”

“I’d be lying if I didn’t, but it’s more sort of excitement,” he said.

“And yeah, I sort of do my meditation each day, just, you know, try being in the present as much as I can, and worry about what I gotta do today, not too much in the future.

“But, yeah, certainly sort of shit myself for this game.”

Smith finished the game with a number of scratches on his body, but revealed that the Bulldogs went with an “almost reverse psychology” approach early in the game by not giving him much attention.

“They didn’t go after me,” he said.

Smith said he loved the challenge of playing against his old club, and praised the time he had spent at Geelong.

“It’s been fun. I’m just so grateful to be able to be like welcomed with, I suppose, open arms after, yeah, a bit of a shit year last year,” he said.

“I’m just grateful, and, yeah, just trying to repay them as best I can, and just, you know, outwork everyone we come up against. So I’m loving it.”

On a night that the Geelong crowd was given free Smith-like headbands to emulate the recruit, the star midfielder wanted to turn attention to a teammate’s milestone.

“I just want to shout out Mitch Duncan. His 300th. I think a lot of the spotlight was on me, which was, you know, pretty unfair for him,” Smith said.

“He’s such a great player, and I just want to give him his credit where it’s where it’s due, 300 games, crazy. I think he’s only the seventh Cat to be able to do it, so we’re gonna go chair him off now.”

Jeremy Cameron was the difference with six goals and several contentious umpiring decisions that went in Geelong’s favour also helped with the free kick count unbalanced at the end.

However, it was a tough win on a big occasion as Smith faced his former team, without any signs of the rancour present in the build-up.

There were boos but not much more as the 2025 Western Bulldogs showed again they need to be beaten more than once in a match if their opponents want to collect the four points.

They fell 33 points behind, hit the post five times, lost the free kick count 26-12, watched Cameron and Shannon Neale kick 11 goals straight between them, but somehow they were level late in the final quarter.

They had just kept coming, lifting themselves from the canvas after conceding a massive 51 points on turnover in the first half.

The main offender was inexperienced Bulldogs defender Luke Cleary, who could not find a target, which left his team vulnerable to the error-punishing Cats. Mr Bean would have exited the back 50 in his Mini with more care than the Bulldogs during the dead-end quarter.

But in a high-scoring match, the Cats could not establish a big enough lead to bury the Bulldogs.

They hung on by scoring goals within red time at the end of each of the first three quarters as they waited for their engine room of Marcus Bontempelli, Ed Richards and Tom Liberatore to kick into gear.

When they did, the game changed and the Bulldogs came hard. Their momentum was interrupted only by a brilliant three-bounce, goal of the year contender from Max Holmes and an outrageously poor piece of umpiring that gifted Jeremy Cameron a goal.

The pièce de résistance came as the Bulldogs controlled territory and threatened to take the lead.

The Cats made a rare foray forward and Shannon Neale kicked the ball deep into the pocket where Ollie Dempsey marked. The ball appeared to be out of bounds when he marked, but it was paid. The young star went back and kicked a cool major to stretch the lead out beyond a goal.

It was frustrating for the Bulldogs but they had their chances to hit the lead more than once after that and struggled to get ahead, drawing level before Shannon Neale managed to run on to Cameron’s kick inside 50 and kick his fourth goal.

He then kicked the sealer when he was smart enough in the ruck to drag James O’Donnell towards him and win a free kick for blocking and it was all over.