Geelong captain Joel Selwood on Gary Ablett and the kittens helping Cats stay atop AFL ladder
Geelong captain Joel Selwood knows how special it is to play with Gary Ablett — but he can’t understand some fans. Plus the skipper on the emerging Cats who have him excited.
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Geelong captain Joel Selwood is loving his footy.
With the Cats sitting pretty atop the AFL ladder, the inspirational leader has opened up on why his club remains a contender and the young faces helping lead the next wave.
SUNDAY: JOEL SELWOOD ON HOW THE CATS HAVE FOUND THE FUN AND HIS BURNING DESIRE FOR MORE PREMIERSHIPS
JOEL SELWOOD ON …
GARY ABLETT
“I know how special it is to play with Gary Ablett; I don’t know if the young boys quite know it yet. Even with the booing at the start of the year, I was like ‘Are you serious? This is going to end at some stage.’
Shaun Burgoyne is doing it too, at his age. With the talent pool becoming so big, we are obviously trying to steal players from anywhere, if we can keep guys like those two playing the game for as long as we can, that would be great.”
PLAYING HAWTHORN
“There are home-and-away games; there are Hawthorn games and then there are finals. It’s always been that way for us and I’m sure it is the same for them.”
* Selwood has played the Hawks more than any other team — 26 times.
TIM KELLY
“He will have the biggest smile in his face when he walks into the club and he will walk out with the biggest smile on his face. He loves playing for the footy, we know that. He has got a decision to make and we respect that.”
JORDAN CLARK
“The kid has got so much talent. We see a huge upside. He has great character in the way he could take his game to be one of the best — he could be a multiple All-Australian and he could be a leader of this footy club for years to come. You can see that already.”
TOM ATKINS
“‘Axe’ is a great story. We are getting to see that now. He could have been given a chance the year before but he didn’t get dirty about it. He could have chosen to go and play in the SANFL, but decided to have another crack.”
GRYAN MIERS
“He is a goalkicker who has hit the scoreboard really heavily so far. He just works so hard and is one of our best runners. He has so much upside — they all do.”
ESAVA RATUGOLEA
“He is special. He is a kid who is going to play a lot of footy with this club. He can jump at the ball like no other. He has helped ‘Hawk’ (Tom Hawkins) with a bit of structure, but he can go into the ruck, too.”
CONCUSSION
“Concussions are so different. I’ve had three and they have been three big ones. But I haven’t had one headache after them — not one. Poor Paddy (McCartin), we don’t know what he is going through. You can’t help but feel for him. We’ve got two doctors (at Geelong) and they see us five or six times a week. They know what is normal and what is not normal. We just want people to understand we work with doctors every day. It is something I am mindful of, as I have a fiancee (Brit Davis) and my mum and dad who are watching.”
HIS JANUARY WEDDING
“My fiancee (Brit) is so excited for it, and I am so excited. We are still working through it now, even now I just got a message from the fiancee this morning saying it is six months away.”
LUKE DAHLHAUS AND GARY ROHAN
“I would have had them (pictured) as introverts who follow the leader. But they are extroverts and good for the group. They want to work hard and prove themselves, too.”
Originally published as Geelong captain Joel Selwood on Gary Ablett and the kittens helping Cats stay atop AFL ladder
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