10 fearless predictions for Geelong ahead of the 2023 season
Who will retire? Who will win the best-and-fairest? Can the Cats carry on their winning streak? We have our say.
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With another year upon us, anything is possible.
Some of the best fun of waiting for the new season is to put yourself on the line and make a bunch of predictions, so after a bit of success last year, here are 10 for Cats fans to get ready for.
No beating the past
Entering a new season carrying a 16-game winning streak is not unheard of, the Brisbane Lions came into 2002 in that exact situation.
Those Lions stretched the streak to 20 before being halted by West Coast.
Geelong will be going for No.17 on Friday night against Collingwood but unfortunately I’m backing the wins to stop within the first two weeks (the Cats play Carlton in round 2) and the Cats fall short of the elite company of winning 20 on the trot.
Minor miss
Geelong cruised to the minor premiership last year but don’t expect a repeat.
With Melbourne and Brisbane both hungry to make a statement, either of those two will claim the pole position before September, but the Cats will still stick in the top four.
Hawk finally gets beaten
After going with this prediction last year and it failing, I’m going after it again.
Tom Hawkins has led Geelong’s goalkicking tally for and absurd 11 consecutive seasons, beginning in 2012, and just pipped Jeremy Cameron by two goals last year.
After an interrupted pre-season, this may finally be the year he loses the crown, and as an extra bonus prediction, I’m backing Cameron to set a new career-high and boot more than 76 goals.
Say goodbye
A prediction made pre-season last year was born out months later when Joel Selwood did pull the pin as expected.
Selwood was joined in the retirement club by Shaun Higgins and Luke Dahlhaus and sadly, there may be more to come.
The crystal ball sees at least four retirements coming at the end of this year – I’ll let you guess the full list but sadly I’m putting Tom Hawkins among them.
Rhys rolls on
So many times in pre-season the question is asked about where Rhys Stanley is at and how strong his grip on the No.1 ruck role is.
Well not here.
After the best season of his career – which followed what was the best season of his career – Stanley is the clear-cut best ruck at Geelong and will remain that way throughout the year, even as Jonathon Ceglar and Toby Conway get some minutes in.
Massive Max
Max Holmes has cleared every hurdle in his first two seasons.
He managed to work hard enough to break into Geelong’s side for the finals in 2021 before then being the best wingman in the league in the second half of 2022.
After a heartbreaking end to last year, Holmes will go to another level again and become one of Geelong’s most important midfielders – inside and outside the contest.
Bonus prediction: expect Cooper Whyte to play multiple games as the year progresses.
Trade hunting continues
Geelong has constantly been in chatter about recruits for years now.
That will not slow down in 2023 and expect the Cats to be right among it for a big name.
Could it be any of Darcy Parish, Tom De Koning or Tom Doedee?
McClelland push
The AFL’s announcement last week of a revamp to the McClelland Trophy – last won by Geelong for the AFLM minor premiership – into a club championship award combining the points in both men and women’s teams is a brilliant call.
And the Cats are well poised to make a push.
Melbourne and Brisbane will be stiff competition but the AFLW Cats should be improvers again this year so expect Geelong to land in the top two in the trophy’s count.
Bruhn is best
The three top-line Geelong recruits – Jack Bowes, Tanner Bruhn and Ollie Henry – seem destined to be linked together for years to come.
While Bowes has showed he is ready to fill a range of roles and Henry may have the most star potential of all three, Bruhn will be the best performed of the three in 2023.
Carji repetition
The engravers won’t have too much work to do – expect one of Geelong’s previous best-and-fairest winners to claim the Carji Greeves Medal again.
That leaves any of these players to do it: Jeremy Cameron, Cam Guthrie, Patrick Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins, Tom Stewart or Mark Blicavs.
This column is putting the money on Blicavs.
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