So you lose five games out of six, you're two games outside the top six, then you lose a dual Coleman medallist and the winner of your last two best and fairests with long-term injuries.
Big trouble, right? Ordinarily, yes. But this is Geelong we're talking about. Which is why there wasn't nearly the same rush to write obituaries for the Cats a few weeks back as there might have been for nearly all their rivals.
Just as well, too. Because once again, after another clean, efficient and thoroughly convincing 25-point win over a Collingwood team on a high, Geelong's third in a row now, we've been reminded why not.
No Jeremy Cameron, no Max Holmes, and last night no Patrick Dangerfield, either. No worries. Because this is a team with serious depth and evenness.
Holmes' loss? The running machine is a gun, but Geelong's midfield dominated the Pies nonetheless, even with Bailey Smith not quite his usual dominant self, with 17 more clearances and 22 more forward entries.
For that it could thank the efforts of James Worpel and Tanner Bruhn, busy and industrious at the stoppages and all over the ground. And from a wing, Ollie Dempsey torched Collingwood, particularly early, racking up 29 disposals and eight score involvements.
Opposition strengths? Well, Nick Daicos was very good, as usual, but it's not often he'll end up with 35 touches and eight score involvements and yet still not completely torch his opponent, because master tagger Oisin Mullin was again good for his side, too.
No Cameron up forward? Step up Ollie Henry and now the very impressive-looking Jay Polkinghorne to work alongside Shannon Neale, the trio sharing eight goals and stretching Collingwood's undersized defence until it snapped, Geelong taking 19 marks inside 50 for the match.
No Dangerfield spark? Again, no probs. This version of the Cats certainly wasn't lacking for spark, Ollie Wiltshire bobbing up at important moments, his late goal probably finally breaking the back of the Pies.
Then there was the inventiveness and natural football nous of two small forward/mids like Shaun Mannagh and Gryan Miers, with no fewer than 14 score involvements between them.
And perhaps it's qualities like that which are routinely underestimated when Geelong drops a few games and loses some of its biggest names. The Cats' football smarts run deep, as deep as any team in the competition, certainly further than the likes of Dangerfield or Tom Stewart, who was terrific again against the Pies.
Not to mention mental fibre. Which was required once Collingwood, to its credit, had whittled a yawning gap of 48 points midway through the second quarter back to just 16 points by midway through the third.
It hadn't taken many minds long to flash back to last week as the teams headed off the MCG for half-time.
Then it had been Adelaide just starting to have second thoughts after Collingwood had kicked the final three goals of the second term to reduce a 27-point deficit to just eight at the long break.
Their second-term rally this time had a similar energy about it, young forward Charlie West snapping just the second goal for the Pies, and two more deep into time-on really did seem to start something buzzing, as much by how their were scored as the scores themselves.
Angus Anderson got the first of those in virtually the first time Collingwood was able to break through Geelong's impeccable forward half defence to score. Then, with under a minute left on the clock, Beau McCreery burst through congestion to snap another, the boost to Magpie spirits obvious with the loudest roar yet from a till-then subdued black and white mob.
By the time McCreery with his second goal and Dan McStay had got the gap under three goals, lesser teams might have entered a state of panic.
Instead, Geelong responded with a final-term burst of its own to restore the status quo, its five-goals-to-three last stanza its 16th fourth quarter win this season, four more than any other team.
The upshot is the Cats (temporarily at least) into fifth spot on the ladder. Their run home? Essendon, North Melbourne and Richmond, two of those at GMHBA Stadium. Percentage boost, anyone?
Just a couple of weeks ago, it seemed like the AFL was set for a wildcard finalist which could really do some damage. Now you'd have Geelong odds-on for a top six spot, and who knows, perhaps even top four isn't beyond them.
Dangerfield will be back soon enough, Cameron maybe in a month, and Holmes is going to be touch-and-go. And yes, that will make going all the way tougher. But impossible? Hardly. Surely, we know better by now than to label any degree of difficulty a bridge too far for this remarkable team.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.
