It was never in doubt for the Geelong Cats on the way to their first Australian Football League championship since 2011.

The Cats won their 16th consecutive match and were never threatened in a 20.13 (133) to 8.4 (52) win over the Sydney Swans.

The Cats, who finished in first place in the regular-season standings with 18 wins in 22 matches, led by 26 points at halftime and 74 in the third quarter before a crowd of 100,024 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

It was the largest crowd at the MCG since 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in severe crowd restrictions which were finally lifted this year.

The Cats, from a regional Victorian state city about 75 kilometres southwest of Melbourne along Port Phillip Bay, are the “old boys” of the AFL.

For their semi-final a week ago, the Cats fielded the oldest team in Victorian Football League/AFL history with an average age of 28 years, 173 days, including 10 players over the age of 30. (AP)