The inside story on the transformation of Geelong in 2022
Geelong’s season has looked very different to recent years, so what has led to the change that has made the Cats so premiership focussed?
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The penny dropped in last year’s finals series.
Chris Scott looked around at the Cats’ premiership competitors and saw the ground rising.
Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs had flexed their scoring muscle, helping capitalise on the new stand rule which was leaving defences more vulnerable.
Geelong, which had been so strong down back for more than a decade, had been risk-adverse in its ball movement under Scott. Slow and controlled was the way.
But as much as this team had been continually able to get the job done in the regular season, September was proving much harder to conquer.
So the Cats, making as many as 16 changes in their football department (from about 34 people), began the complete redesign in October.
The coaching staff was totally overhauled including letting go favourite sons Matthew Scarlett and Corey Enright (St Kilda) and Matthew Knights (West Coast) in place of former Cats James Kelly, Harry Taylor, Shannon Byrnes and Matthew Egan, who all joined in various roles.
Scott put a blank canvas up on the wall, brought out the paintbrushes and pondered with his new lieutenants how the Cats had to change in style to score more.
To develop new weapons, they needed new talent. But, just as importantly, they needed new ideas. A fresh approach. An open-mindedness.
And as Scott called it only two weeks ago, “an optimistic” attitude towards “what is possible in 2022” despite a backdrop of scepticism about the Cats’ ageing profile and finals record.
Previously, Geelong’s slow build-up in ball movement often allowed the opposition to fold back on the Cats’ forwards, but the stand rule was opening up new avenues; new opportunities.
There was more speed on the game, now. Less congestion. A new horizon.
Steve Hocking should know. The man who took over as the Cats’ chief executive last year was almost single-handedly tasked with the job to open up the game as AFL football operations boss.
The rules which changed the game were his. And now he was Scott’s boss.
If Geelong had been stubborn in the past on its game style, the time to transform had arrived. The Cats had to become chameleons.
And while Geelong had promised brilliant captain Joel Selwood it would try to genuinely contend for the premiership in every season of his career, time was running out.
Veteran wingman Isaac Smith said the writing was on the wall last September.
“It was probably tabled in the finals series last year when we saw how the Western Bulldogs and especially the Melbourne Demons were going about it, and Richmond over the past five years changed the game,” Smith said.
“Then we saw Melbourne took it to another level last year, with the six-six-six rule and the new stand rule … they dominated the competition late last year.
“So the coaching group did a really good job while all us players were away and the day we got back – day one of pre-season – it was stamped there and then.
“We have just been trying to get better and better at it as the year has gone on.”
While the first six weeks may have delivered some up-and-down results (lost to Sydney Swans, Hawthorn and Fremantle), perhaps Geelong turned a corner in the round 8 win over GWS Giants (88 to 35), as they cantered to yet another minor premiership and preliminary final berth on Friday night.
As Patrick Dangerfield explained after that win, there was a new “go forward” mentality. The Cats were 18th for kicking in a forward direction last year, but are fourth this season.
Sideways and backwards is out. Attack is in. Like a racehorse, the blinkers have gone on.
And subsequently they are the No.1 team in the league for inside-50s and for scoring efficiency from their inside-50s. They are No.2 for scoring points off turnover, too (ninth last year).
That ninja blade is as sharp as they come around champion goalkicker Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron and All-Australian recruit Tyson Stengle, while Gary Rohan was electric in the semi-final thriller against Collingwood.
Personnel has also received a considerable boost, as list chiefs Andrew Mackie and Stephen Wells pulled off a move for Stengle to provide the lethal stay-at-home small forward the Cats didn’t have.
Sam De Koning became a bona fide star three years after he was drafted at pick 19 and Max Holmes added some elite run to a veteran midfield.
A key move was to send hard nut Tom Atkins into the midfield, where his incredible work-rate, team ethos, tackling pressure and physicality helped compliment an engine room led by Dangerfield and Selwood.
And importantly, after strategically managing their loads at times this season, both head into the preliminary final in good physical shape. Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron are firing, too.
How they fit in the Cats’ salary cap is a credit to Geelong’s management and philosophy under Wells and Mackie. They run their own payment system, rather than bow to market forces.
They pay what they think is fair, and have tried to use what players can offer over the age of 30, in the same way other clubs have targeted and in some cases prioritised 18-22 year olds.
When players hit 30, they can be written off. Geelong’s mentality is different.
Incredibly, Nakia Cockatoo (traded to Brisbane) has been their only top-10 draft pick since Selwood in 2006.
“Over the last decade we have taken a slightly contrarian view to that of the masses around list management,” Scott said.
“We spend a lot of time thinking through what free agency would mean for the game, what expansion would mean, the ability of clubs to rebuild, managing TPP (total player payments).
“This might be an oversimplification but TPP management might be the biggest area of competitive advantage in the game.”
Four-time grand final coach Ross Lyon, who was approached for a job on the Cats coaching staff late last year, said he admired Scott enormously for what he had co-ordinated from the coaches’ box this year, helping Geelong become an even better team after an off-season of change.
The Cats’ teeth were sharper in 2022 after adding more overlap run through the midfield to find more space forward.
“What Chris Scott has done (is incredible),” Lyon said.
“He would have a statue out the front of six other clubs. I don’t think he gets enough credit.
“The rules have evolved to allow to you (to take more opportunity in forward half).
“I watch when they get a handball receive and they flow from that, which is what we want (as spectators).
“When I was coaching before that stand rule came in, you could not do that because that handball receiver would just get nailed (by the man on the mark or a nearby opponent).
“So defences are getting exposed and there’s more flow. And Geelong has adapted.”
But Geelong’s back line is still excellent, despite the loss of Scarlett as one of the game’s greatest defensive masterminds.
Lachie Henderson retired and Jordan Clark joined Fremantle. De Koning has been unbelievable, taking the reins from Jack Henry when he went down injured.
According to Champion Data, Geelong has conceded the fewest number of points off turnover in the competition in 2022.
And Tom Stewart, who missed the finals last year with a serious foot problem, has had an All-Australian season on the back of last year’s nightmare finish and a suspension this year for striking Richmond’s Dion Prestia, which genuinely rattled him.
Mitch Duncan has also settled on to a back flank and is still one of the best kicks in the competition.
On the surface, the Cats appear to be peaking at the right time of the season.
It was Scott’s wish.
“Our plan, if we had to summarise it at the start of the year, was to give ourselves the best chance even if it meant some short-term sacrifices in terms of ladder position or winning a game here or there,” Scott said.
“We don’t have the problems we have had in the last couple of years.”
The two biggest games of the season now separate Geelong from another disappointing finals finish and their fourth premiership in 16 years.
Scott said he would rather be in with a chance, than not at all. But nothing is guaranteed. It’s either pure joy or complete despair, again.
“That is the price you have got to pay, I have come to terms with it,” Scott said.
“It is the price of admission.
“You need to accept there are going to be horrible moments when life sucks, but that is the price you have to pay to give yourselves the chance for that exhilaration.
“We do operate in a brutal industry where you only feel that true exhilaration if you win it, otherwise you’ve lost the last game.
“It is a big (emotional) risk. I sit here, knowing exactly how I am going to feel if we lose our last game and it is something I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
“But to give yourselves one chance to win it …”
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