An inside midfielder with goalkicking ability, he spent his early career with Geelong's Victorian Football League (VFL) affiliate.

[1] In 2017, Atkins was Geelong's co-captain and became a permanent midfielder, but his season was interrupted by a hamstring injury causing him to miss six games.

When uninjured he was still regularly named among Geelong's best and in round 18 laid 23 tackles against Collingwood, including 12 in the last quarter – the equal-most in a VFL match and the equal-second-most recorded by Champion Data in any competition.

[7] Atkins again missed out on selection in the 2017 draft, but was encouraged by Geelong's head of football Simon Lloyd to continue pushing for an AFL career.

Atkins was among the VFL's top ten players in score assists, handballs, contested possessions, clearances and hard ball gets.

Atkins would finish fifth in the club's Carji Greeves Medal count, winning the Tom Harley Award as best clubman for 2022.