Geelong Cats news in the wake of preliminary final loss to Melbourne
Geelong isn’t the sort of team that flounders around at the bottom of the ladder waiting for draft picks to fix its woes — and there’s a quick fix on offer.
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Geelong isn’t a club which throws the baby out with the bathwater.
When you have played in 12 preliminary and two semi-finals since 2004, never finished lower than 12th in the club’s history and have a record of unearthing gold with picks in the middle rounds, the prospect of going down the bottom for a few years to load up on top draft picks simply doesn’t appeal.
It is true the Cats will ultimately farewell a batch of premiership heroes and a big batch of 30-year-olds in the coming years, signalling something of a new chapter for the blue and white.
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But upon any reasonable measurement, a Geelong team boasting arguably the best defender in the game in Tom Stewart, two of the best forwards in Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins and a superstar in Patrick Dangerfield, the Cats again look like top-four or top-six material, at worst, in 2022.
So don’t expect any rash judgements or snap decisions when new chief executive Steve Hocking takes the reins over the next few weeks (or whenever Brian Cook decides to lob at Ikon Park).
Rather, expect some considerable change around Chris Scott in the coach’s box.
Matthew Knights will join Adam Simpson at West Coast and it is likely a couple of sets of fresh eyes will come in. The Cats need gears in their game plan and they can be exposed in an up tempo contest.
But perhaps just as importantly there will be a sharp focus on the medical room, and a keenness to try and have a better run on the injury front, albeit some of it was pure bad luck.
Cameron missed 10 games with a triple hamstring setback, Dangerfield was out for nine weeks, Mitch Duncan was sidelined for 12 weeks with a serious knee injury and Tom Stewart missed the finals.
Mark O’Connor and Brandan Parfitt also went down late, and Shaun Higgins and Luke Dahlhaus were struck down early.
And perhaps a bit like the other top sides from last year, Richmond (which didn’t make the finals), Brisbane (straight sets exit) and Port Adelaide (blown away in the preliminary final) just maybe the toll of the past two COVID-19 impacted seasons took their toll, in a way.
That is not to make an excuse, but time on the road, and away from family have left many key officials and players at clubs feeling exhausted and drained in recent weeks.
Geelong was no different.
As three senior figures told News Corp on Monday, football people are in need of a good break.
That is not to say Geelong won’t try and improve, again for next year. It has to. As Dangerfield said on Monday “You win or you learn and we will get better”.
But while some might be calling for a full-scale rebuild, there is internal optimism around some of the young talent already growing on the vine at Geelong and a history of outperforming with their draft hand.
To win a flag, clubs have to nail those picks in the 30s and 40s.
The Cats believe there is significant upside in speedster Max Holmes, the gun 400m runner who played 12 games in his first season, Jack Henry who looks like one of the best young defenders in the league, agile tall Sam De Koning, ultra-professional untried inside midfielder Cooper Stephens, key forward Esava Ratugolea and top-tackler Parfitt.
The question is what Fremantle might be willing to hand over for speedster Jordan Clark (who is contracted for another year) and whether Quinton Narkle will stay and cement a regular midfield berth next year.
The Cats don’t have a pick in the top-30 of the draft this year but there are certainly no regrets at the club over the moves to give up three early picks for Cameron and receive two second-rounders back.
He averaged 2.6 goals a game, the fourth-most in the league.
Former Hawk Isaac Smith, who came for nothing as a free agent, looks set to finish top-five in the best and fairest.
He averaged 23 disposals over 24 games and gave the Cats some much-needed run.
Veteran defender Lachie Henderson will make a call on his future after a week or two away and could finish up, Joel Selwood can play for more time on a wing or half back, and Shaun Higgins and Luke Dahlhaus will talk about their contracts for next season and their commitment to go full-bore again.
The Cats led Richmond at half time of last year’s Grand Final and were premiership favourite before letting slip a 40-point lead late in their Round 23 loss to Melbourne.
The five biggest bets TAB held on the premiership market were all on the Cats.
It went pear-shaped in the last few weeks, but for all that went wrong in the finals series for Geelong this year, Hocking and Scott is unlikely to turf out what went right.
Especially if they think the premiership window has another year or two left in it. Bottoming out, as they say, isn’t in the Cats’ thinking, and no one knows the Cats’ DNA better than Hocking.
CAT FINALS FLOP’S NEW DEAL
Geelong has quietly re-signed forward Gary Rohan in recent weeks after another brilliant home-and-away season followed by a rollercoaster September.
The Herald Sun can reveal Rohan is certain to be at the Cats next year after recently agreeing to terms on a new deal, following seasons with 25, 22 and 32 goals since his move from Sydney.
While Rohan has had to deal with a turbulent personal life after breaking up with his wife Amie, he has played exceptional home-and-away football.
But a strong two-goal, 13-possession display against GWS was book-ended by a quiet qualifying final where he barely touched the ball in the first half and a poor preliminary final where he eventually hurt his hamstring.
Geelong premiership captain Cameron Ling said on Saturday Rohan would have lost the trust of the playing group after “disappearing” in the final against Melbourne.
He suggested playing Max Holmes or young midfielder Cooper Stephens might be more constructive for the club’s long-term hopes.
Rohan will join ruckman Rhys Stanley in signing a new deal, with the athletic ruckman to be handed a new two-year deal.
Josh Jenkins will finish up at Geelong this year after a two-year deal as a ruck-forward back-up, while K Rock reported on Monday forward Ben Jarvis and No.50 draft pick Cameron Taheny has also been delisted.
Midfielders Charlie Constable and Quinton Narkle would both love to play regular football and would be prepared to leave the Cats if an opportunity arose.
But Constable could not find a suitor last year and the Tigers are not believed to be keen on Narkle despite him being linked to the club in recent months
Finals fallout begins at Geelong
The winds of change have started blowing through Geelong with experienced assistant coach Matthew Knights departing.
Knights, who was Essendon’s first coach after Kevin Sheedy, has been lured to the West Coast Eagles to work under Adam Simpson.
The former Richmond champion has been at Geelong since 2012 where he started as the VFL coach.
Knights, who was coming out of contract, has been in charge of the Cats midfield in recent years.
The fall-out from Geelong’s disappointing preliminary final exit is expected to continue with speculation coach Chris Scott might be targeted by Carlton.
Chief executive Brian Cook is departing - and is also being chased by the Blues - with incoming boss Steve Hocking expected to shake up the club’s football department.
Sick Cats revealed, plus the bug that nailed a Dee
Melbourne was also hit with illness in the lead-up to its barnstorming win over Geelong last week when as many as six Cats were sick for their preliminary final.
The Cats have failed to blame the illness for their poor performance with Jeremy Cameron, Tom Hawkins, Cameron Guthrie, Esava Ratugolea, Brad Close and Lachie Henderson all believed to been unwell in the 48 hours before the game.
The virus forced the Cats players to isolate in their hotel rooms before the game as they dealt with fever-like symptoms. Some players were still feeling depleted throughout and after the game as they produced their worst performance of the year in the cut-throat final.
News Corp can also reveal Melbourne was forced to isolate one of its players last week due to a bug.
The player, who the Demons would not identify on Sunday, had a Covid-19 test and missed some training but was cleared fit to play in the 83-point win in Perth.
The Demons were unaware the Cats had been so hard hit by illness on Thursday and Friday other than a change to the club’s emergencies.
Quinton Narkle replaced Sam Simpson (concussion) on the emergency list, while the Cats also warned the AFL there could be other changes due to the virus which swept the team.
Geelong has refused earlier to comment publicly on the bug to avoid being seen as using the illness as an excuse for the heavy defeat.
Superstar midfielder Patrick Dangerfield said the virus was not to blame for the ugly loss.
“It is real but it is not the reason we lost the game, I’ll make that perfectly clear,” Dangerfield said. “We were outplayed in almost every facet of the game.”
He said the Cats would make their own assessments on the list profile and not worry about calls to retire veterans and hit the draft.
“We just do it differently to other clubs,” he said.
The Cats players were subject to Covid-19 testing and flew back to Victoria on Sunday.
Dangerfield is expected to undergo surgery on a finger injury which he has carried since the Round 23 loss to Melbourne.
Green-gilled Cats ‘battered’ long before finals
Geelong was dealt a significant blow in the lead up to Friday night’s loss to Melbourne with several players falling ill.
News Corp understands several Cats’ players were sick on Thursday and Friday and were feeling unwell during the game.
Geelong has made clear it was not an excuse for its poor performance and has said Melbourne was too good.
But sources said a handful of players were severely affected.
It’s believed up to six Geelong players were ill before Friday’s clash with Cameron Guthrie and Jeremy Cameron among those affected.
Geelong would not comment on Saturday night.
Coach Chris Scott said post-match: “We’ve fallen short and it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but our club has over a long period of time found a way to recover from difficult situations.
“We’re in that situation again where we’ve got a choice to make: We can roll over or we can take the time we need to regroup.
“We were pretty battered towards the end of the season, not just the last couple of weeks but probably the six weeks leading into the finals series.
“There’s a few things that I won’t speak about tonight that will become clearer over the next few weeks, but suffice to say, I’m proud of the way our guys endured and we just completely ran out of steam by tonight.”
Scott won’t entertain offers from rival clubs
— Brad Elborough and Chris Cavanagh
Chris Scott is committed to the challenge facing Geelong, to bounce back after its 83-point loss to Melbourne in the Preliminary Final on Friday night.
He won’t entertain taking a phone call from any other club looking for a coach, such as Carlton, declaring “I wouldn’t answer my phone; it would be off for a while”.
That challenge to win their first flag since 2011 is not as simple as changing the age profile of the side.
The Cats had 12 players take to Perth Stadium who were 30 years of age or older, and looked tired and slow as they copped their biggest loss since Round 11, 2014.
Scott said the heavy defeat came at the end of a draining period of five or six weeks and his “battered” team “completely ran out of steam”. .
But he pointed to history to suggest the Cats — who slumped to their fourth preliminary final defeat in six years — are capable of recovering from the slashing at the hands of the Demons.
“When you get beaten, you look old and when you win, it’s because of your experience,” he said.
“I don’t think either is necessarily true, but we have to dig down and be really clear that the things we need to improve on are real, rather than just jumping at the superficial analysis.
“At the end of 2010, Geelong had a bad loss in a preliminary final and it was the end then.
“We are in a brutally difficult competition, that is in effect a handicap. So, the longer you are up towards the top, the harder it gets. I understand that part of it.
“That was out challenge at the end of 2010 and I suspect that is still our challenge now.”
The coach took Geelong to a premiership in his first season at the helm in 2011 after the 41-point loss to Collingwood to end 2010.
They have played in six preliminary finals since, progressing to one grand final (2020).
Scott said that while they would tweak their plan a little bit, they have been working on it for a long period of time and that it is not dependent on a good win or a bad loss at the end of the season.
The Cats coach defended the decision to play the older players on the list, leaving the younger ones to learn their trade more often than not in the VFL.
At this time of the year, names like Jordan Clark and Quinton Narkle are being bandied around among those younger players who might seek more opportunities elsewhere.
But again, Scott pointed to history, declaring that the VFL provided a solid base for quality AFL players.
“It’s the price you pay for playing at a successful club as a young player,” he said.
“There is an alternative; (you can) play a little bit more and finish in the bottom four.
“If you use history as a guide, the dominant Geelong sides played a lot of VFL footy. There is a very strong argument that that is a good grounding to play your best football in your early 20s.
“But every case is a bit different.”
The Cats had just 42 inside-50s for the night, were belted in the contested possession count 160-130 and looked slow on the outside of the contest against a slick Demons outfit.
The average age of the Geelong team was almost three-and-a-half years older than Melbourne.
“I think in the fullness of time we will reflect on not only this year but the last two years under a lot of adversity how well our club has stuck together and given all our people a chance at the ultimate,” Scott said.
“We just completely ran out of steam tonight.”
In the past 10 years, Geelong has missed finals just once but has made only one Grand Final in 2020, which is lost to Richmond by 31 points.
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