How subtle shifts which have helped Geelong stave off slide and surge back into premiership contention
With one of the most settled line-ups in the competition, coach Chris Scott has emerged from a summer of renovation with a Geelong team which has the ingredients to be a genuine contender, writes Jon Anderson.
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The only certainty about Geelong’s weekly line-up in 2018 was uncertainty, as its coaching staff desperately sought a formula that would both get to, and hold up in, September.
Forty players were used (West Coast played 33) but it was more a lack of continuity in positions that hurt in a year that ended disastrously with a dismal elimination final loss to Melbourne.
Flick forward to 2019 and Geelong is one of the most settled line-ups in the competition.
The stability has been helped by good form and availability, but it’s also clear evidence of a determination from Chris Scott and his advisers that there are three distinct groups and they will play together as much as possible.
The club had long yearned for small/medium forwards who could apply the frenetic pressure associated with recently successful teams.
Last year alone the Cats tried a host of small and medium-sized types in attack — Gary Ablett, Nakia Cockatoo, Patrick Dangerfield, Jordan Cunico, Lachie Fogarty, Corey Gregson, Jack Henry, Jamaine Jones, Tim Kelly, Lincoln McCarthy, Sam Menegola, Daniel Menzel, Jordan Murdoch, Quinton Narkle, Brandan Parfitt, James Parson and Scott Selwood.
In the midfield, while not as pronounced, there was a natural tendency to rely on proven and ageing champions as distinct from Tim Kelly, Brandon Parfitt and the untried Charlie Constable.
Even in defence there was chopping and changing, most notably with Harry Taylor and Jack Henry as they sometimes switched forward.
But not this year.
Dual Geelong premiership player Cameron Mooney (210 games from 2000-2011) was one who played a variety of roles and said you can’t underestimate the value of a settled side.
“I’m a huge believer in role players, as in you need a number one, a number two and a number three in the midfield. So ‘Danger’, you are number one, Tim Kelly, you are number two, and in the first four weeks it was Charlie Constable as the three,” Mooney, 39, said.
“And then saying to Joel (Selwood), we need you on a wing so you can be fresher at the end of the season, as he has looked tired the last couple. The Geelong coaching staff are placing trust in their younger players.
“It has provided a lot more clarity because I would ask, ‘Did everyone know their role last year?’ Now there are so few changes each week that it becomes mechanical. And a lot harder at the selection table. Melbourne had five changes before Richmond and never looked as if they were on the same page.”
In racing parlance its called horses for courses, when a horse and jockey are best suited to a track and conditions. Read Gryan Miers, specifically recruited as a small forward and played solely in that role.
Or Luke Dahlhaus, so effective early in his Western Bulldogs career as a small forward and now being played exclusively in that slot. Or Gary Rohan and Tom Atkins.
In their glory years of 2007, ’09 and ’11, Geelong had Shannon Byrnes, Mathew Stokes and Travis Varcoe who provided the small forward/midfield pressure with aplomb to tall forwards in Tom Hawkins, James Podsiadly. Nathan Ablett and Mooney.
Hawkins remains the tall constant, today partnered by a young man of Fijian heritage in Esava Ratugolea. While there is a natural desire for Ratugolea to boost his numbers, those who play with him like the space he creates and the contests he smashes open.
In the midfield the natural evolution of Kelly has seen him spending far more time at the centre bounce, a spot where Cam Guthrie found himself against Hawthorn when tagging Jaeger O’Meara.
Joel Selwood alternatively has spent half of his game time on a wing as he builds fitness and accepts a change of role as beneficial to the bigger picture, with Mitch Duncan more regularly facing him across the square on the opposite wing.
And they do have injuries to players who would challenge for senior football when fit. Nakia Cockatoo would be a certain inclusion and Jed Bews, Lachie Fogarty, Lachie Henderson and Scott Selwood would all be in the mix.
For the club’s last premiership captain in Cameron Ling, the team’s tweaks gives it a potent look.
“Five games is only a small sample but they look as if they will stack up pretty well against the better teams,” Ling said.
“Matthew Scarlett has done an amazing job with the backline, but the big one for me is the hunting and pressure nature of their forwards.
“Gryan Miers has a huge tank which would allow him to have a run in the midfield, but they are keeping him forward. It’s the same up back where they let a kid like Jordan Clark come in and play to his strengths.
“Clark gets rested this week, as Charlie Constable was last week, but they are replaced by experienced players in Zach Tuohy and Cam Guthrie.
“And by winning some early games, it will allow them to manage players in the expectation they make finals. I’m finding watching the development of some of those young players a joy.”
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