Former president Frank Costa has described the Geelong Football Club as the heart and soul of the city in a recent interview on Jo Hall’s online segment, Great Australian Lives.

Costa, who was Geelong’s president for 14 years, says being a local resident wasn’t the sole reason for his growing adoration of the club.

“It wasn't just because I lived there, I went to school there and my school admired the Geelong Football Club, you’ve got no idea. Those blue and white hoops were just the heroes as far as us kids were concerned,” Costa told SoundCloud.  

“My father was a passionate Geelong supporter too and he went to the footy a lot and all our friends were Geelong supporters.”

According to Costa, the Geelong Football Club is the beating heart of the city and its surrounding districts.  

“It’s an unbelievable thing in Geelong because the football club has become more or less the soul and the spirit of the whole city,” Costa said.

“When the footy club is doing well and it’s up the city is up and positive, and when the footy club isn’t going well the town gets quite depressed.

“So over the years I got to know what it meant to us (the city of Geelong).”

Currently Costa feels the Cats are not at their shining best, however, he’s confident they’ve got the outfit to spark up.

“Reasonably, they’re not starring at the moment,” Costa said.

“It’s going to be a hell of a battle to finish top four and you really need to be in the top four to have a genuine chance of winning a premiership.

“So we’ve got to win at least five of the last seven games which I think we can… and we’ll have Stokesy back in two or three weeks so that’ll strengthen us.”

Click here for the full interview.