IF YOU wander the hallways of Geelong's player area at GMHBA Stadium, you're likely to stumble across a fiercely contested game of … chess.
The Cats' playing group has developed an unlikely love of a game rarely – if ever – associated with a football club, with travel chess sets and online games a popular way of killing time on away trips.
Such is the rapid explosion in popularity, there's a full championship bracket of 24 operating, with a waiting list to join, and it's proven to be a quirky way to foster connection across the playing group.
"We do have a chess club going. I don't know how many people are in it, there's about 20, I reckon. We've made a couple of little tournaments based around the World Cup, Wimbledon, NBA – that's how the format works," Zach Tuohy told AFL.com.au.
"We've called it a chess club, but there are maybe four chess players, and the rest are genuinely horrific. I'll let you try and work out who they are, but there's some shockers there."
Tuohy and Mark Blicavs are the driving forces of the chess club, with the Irishman nominated as the Cat most passionate about the game, even streaming professional chess matches as one would watch a game of football.
Mark O'Connor and Gryan Miers were mentioned by players as the best of the rest.
"It sounds like a compliment, but I'm absolutely the best of a horrific bunch," Tuohy said with a grin.
"I've always really enjoyed chess. I've watched it, I dig it. Then a few guys, I think it was in the hub, started playing chess as something to do, and there's been a handful of guys who have carried on playing off site in their own time.
"I'm not sure why the word spread, but earlier this year, a few more boys jumped on board, and we said why don't we chuck the names on a whiteboard, and start playing a competition.
"It's not exactly party central here at the Cats. We have a chess club, we're not exactly running riot around town."
Tuohy said the organisational details for the club tournaments fall to veteran Blicavs, "which is a fair effort by him, because he's one of the terrible players I was talking about".
Blicavs calls himself the "league commissioner" of the chess club, and is in charge of running the show.
His mum, former Australian basketballer Karen Ogden, supplies the chessboards, made by her own hand.
"Zach Tuohy was really into it, and I think Gryan was in chess club at school at one stage, then we just thought we should put some chess boards in the room of our PDM (player development manager, Shannon Byrnes and Mark Worthington)," Blicavs said.
"As a hobby, Mum makes chess boards, so she's made a couple of match-size chess boards. We bought the clocks, and we started a little chess club with a few tournaments.
"It started with 16 of us players, and now there's 24 and a bit of a wait list to get on, so it's going all right.
"We'll have three tournaments throughout the year, and from there, we'll have a top eight AFL-style finals, 1v4, 2v3, etc. So, I'm just keeping the points on my phone and at the end of the season, the winner – or the grandmaster – wins the board and a bottle of red."
As light-hearted as the club may seem, it's proven to be a useful bonding tool, especially for the younger generation to connect with the veterans.
"When I first put the message into the group chat, I thought there'd be eight or nine keen, and that'd be it. But it's slowly grown, there's even a few of the young boys who aren't in the group who just play each other on the day," Blicavs said.
"We have our PDMs in that room too, so it's making good relationships and there are some natural convos and catch-ups that happen. So it's a good little space.
"The standard's going well – I've gotten worse. I'm on an eight-game losing streak, so I'm a bit annoyed about that. But everyone's improving, Tommy Atkins is probably the biggest improver, he's doing well. But Zach Tuohy's the one to beat, I think he actually watches YouTube videos at home and chess tournaments, he's very passionate."
The Cats aren't the only AFL players to have been taken by the game, with Carlton (and now St Kilda) housemate trio Sam Walsh, Matt Kennedy and Paddy Dow developing their skills with a fancy chess set the latter received for his 21st birthday. Melbourne teammates Max Gawn and Clayton Oliver have also been engaging in regular games throughout the season, with the drama often shared on their Instagram feeds.
