It was a heartbreaking finish to another Easter Monday classic for Cats fans but with a long season ahead, there are plenty of positives to take from Geelong's first month of the 2026 season. 

In their opening four games, the Cats have already squared off with Gold Coast, Fremantle and Hawthorn who are all expected to be premiership contenders this year. 

The other contest was against Adelaide, the 2025 minor premiers and certainly still a strong team who pushed Geelong right up until the final siren in a tense round 3 clash. 

The Cats started the 2025 season with two wins from four games, in 2022 they were 3-2 after five weeks and they also sat 2-2 after the opening month in both 2020 and 2021. 

Despite the disappointment of Easter Monday, there is still plenty to get excited about with another big run of games ahead, a sentiment that was echoed by Zach Guthrie following the clash against Hawthorn. 

"There have been moments where we have been challenged early in the year," Guthrie told Cats Media. 

"Obviously we didn't start the way we wanted, then we bounced back well. We have had a bit of a funny schedule, we had the bye in there and the long break going into this one on Easter Monday.

"I think we have got a six day break post this game into Gather Round, then a five day break after that one again.

"Looking forward to getting into those games, a couple of huge contests for us and looking to keep the season going on the right track.

"Hopefully we can keep building on things and playing some good footy, hopefully bank some wins."

Despite the result, there were plenty of strong performances to come from Geelong's Easter Monday clash, specifically a number of young guns standing tall under immense pressure. 

Shannon Neale plucked a game-high three contested marks and kicked four goals, following on from his brilliant display against Fremantle in Round 1 and showing that he is ready to take the next step in his development. 

Another positive for the Cats was the display from Mitch Edwards, who won 18 hit-outs and six clearances in a tough battle with Hawthorn's two-pronged ruck set-up, as he looked increasingly comfortable in his third AFL game. 

Guthrie said that Geelong will take the positives from their first four games, and look to perfect their game plan as they head into another intriguing stretch of the season. 

"I think we saw some positive things tonight, just things we will keep looking to build on," Guthrie said. 

"Obviously it is still early stages of the season, but there is plenty of new things that we are trying to implement.

"It just continues to evolve across the season, I feel like you are never playing exactly the same way from the first game of the year to the end. The personnel changes, the footy seems to evolve so there will be a couple of things we will work on.

"There are a couple of good things we saw tonight, but we will look to keep building."