For Geelong it was the last dark hour before the dawn of an unthinkably great era. It was 10 years ago to the weekend, round five 2007, and the Cats were beaten at home by North Melbourne. After the disappointment of their failed 2006 campaign and the much-publicised football department review from which coach Mark Thompson barely kept his job, Geelong had started the season with two wins and two losses. They weren't firing on all cylinders but were still widely expected to beat the Kangaroos, who had finished 14th the previous year and had lost their first three games in 2007, breaking their duck against the Brisbane Lions in round four.

Years later Hamish McIntosh would play for the Cats, but on this Sunday afternoon he was part of Dean Laidley's unfancied outfit which had travelled to what was then known as Skilled Stadium. He recalls a "nothing to lose" attitude within the team. "There were probably [only] 50 North supporters there," McIntosh remembers.

"We played one of the best games we've played as a club. It was a huge moment for us."

Led by 41 disposals from captain Adam Simpson, the Roos stunned the Cats by 16 points. The result was the second of six straight wins for the Roos, who made an improbable run to the preliminary final.

But in the long run the day would be better remembered for what followed at Geelong. Neil Balme had only recently joined the Cats as football manager and recalls the players' attitude in the immediate aftermath of the defeat was counterproductive.

"When they came off the ground, the playing group were really disappointed in themselves. They took it to heart," Balme said.

"They blamed each other. Not pointedly, but 'it was our fault, not mine.'"

Thankfully for the Cats, things would soon change. Balme says Thompson was instrumental in ensuring the players owned up to their shortcomings, and did what they had to do to right the sinking ship. "It was a realisation amongst themselves that the answer to the problem was in the room," Balme said.

"They had control of it. All they had to do was tighten up a bit, do their job a bit better, just do their individual role. From my memory it was Corey Enright when he was asked, 'what can we do?,' he said, 'I get it, I can actually do something.'

"It was really quite a simple discussion, but it was actually quite a profound response to it. I thought it was quite a powerful moment."

The rest is history. The following week the Cats annihilated Richmond by 157 points, the first of 15 straight wins en route to the 2007 premiership, two more flags by the end of 2011, and a dramatic cultural shift which is still felt today as Geelong yet again contend for silverware.

They would meet the Roos twice more in 2007. The second of those clashes - a qualifying final at the MCG - ended in a 106-point Cats win. McIntosh says it was clear by September that Geelong's mental switch had been flicked. "After that game that we beat them, it was a real turning point for them," he said.

"They were definitely more confident as a team. The first time we played them they definitely weren't the same side that played in the qualifying final. They were a lot more confident. You got the sense that their group knew that they were good."

Balme said that when he joined Geelong he had sensed they were on the right track, and that the players had probably felt the same way. "[The turnaround] wasn't really that surprising if you were objective about looking at it. It was only that they had an ordinary 2006," Balme said.

"And that was a little bit how the boys felt around the round five game when they were sitting there thinking 'I thought we were better than this.'"

Just how remarkably the wheel would turn was difficult for anyone to fathom. Perhaps the clue about Geelong's potential should have been taken from the first thing Balme remembers about that game. Not the sting of the loss, but rather the performance of a fourth-gamer from Bendigo who had 25 disposals and earned a Rising Star award nomination for his showing. A kid named Joel Selwood.