By Marc McGowan
Geelong’s success should not surprise anyone at this point, but we placed them in the same tardy old basket as Richmond in most pre-season predictions.
Fast-forward to the present, and the Cats are the AFL’s sole undefeated team through seven rounds, including back-to-back wins over Brisbane – a week after the Lions rolled Melbourne at the MCG – and Carlton.
Jeremy Cameron’s five goals, including the 600th for his career, helped maintain Geelong’s unbeaten record.Credit: AFL Photos
That follows a 0-3 start last season and being forced to play catch-up, before twice more losing three matches in a row and eventually missing finals as the reigning premiers.
Three of this year’s victories have been by 13 points or fewer, but that is what Geelong does. They simply find a way to win, and have done so for most of Chris Scott’s 14 seasons and before that under Mark Thompson.
The Blues did not help their cause with wasted chances in front of goal, and some will say the Cats benefited from some contentious umpiring decisions, but they also punished Carlton with ruthless efficiency.
Zach Tuohy’s goal on the tick of half-time gave Geelong a 10.3 scoreline from only 19 inside-50s, which is utterly ridiculous and the reason they were 19 points clear at the main break despite trailing significantly in clearances, contested possessions and inside-50s.
As Fox Footy’s David King put it mid-game: “They release so quickly forward of the ball, Geelong – it’s immediate. It’s very hard to locate when you’re a Carlton defender or midfielder, in time to affect the play. They are so efficient it’s frightening.”
And all this was achieved with Tom Hawkins’ goalless streak extending to three matches.
There was logic behind the doomsday prognosticating. Injuries caught up with the Cats last year; they entered this season with 11 players on the wrong side of 30 (10 of them 31 or older); question marks, for various reasons, on players such as Tyson Stengle, Cam Guthrie, Brandan Parfitt and Tanner Bruhn; and the potential distraction of Max Holmes’ contract situation.
Ollie Dempsey (right) is enjoying a breakout season.Credit: Getty Images
Isaac Smith retired and Esava Ratugolea departed for Port Adelaide, too, while there was a genuine debate on whether the kids were good enough to make up for the natural decline of the veterans.
Scott, Andrew Mackie, Steve Hocking and co. must have chuckled as everyone wrote them off again.
The final game tallies from last season don’t look too bad, but Geelong kept having to deal with the absence of first-choice personnel in the first half of the year. Jack Henry, Mitch Duncan, Holmes, Patrick Dangerfield, Jake Kolodjashnij, Guthrie, Jed Bews, Jack Bowes, Sam De Koning, Rhys Stanley, Stengle and Gary Rohan were all unavailable for multiple matches in that period, while Tom Stewart, Brad Close, Tuohy and Ollie Henry also missed a game each.
Guthrie made his long-awaited return in Saturday’s triumph over the Blues, which they managed without Stewart (concussion) but with a largely fit list, particularly counting key players, as has been the case in 2024.
Ollie Dempsey, 20, has not missed a game, Jhye Clark, 19, has played six matches, and 21-year-olds Holmes, Bruhn and Ollie Henry are senior regulars.
The Cats have also exposed Toby Conway, Shannon Neale and Mitch Knevitt – all 21 – and Connor O’Sullivan, 18, plus developing Irishman Oisin Mullin and mature-age recruit Shaun Mannagh.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Still fight in the old dogs
We are always looking for the next batch of superstars.
Marcus Bontempelli and Christian Petracca are well established at, or near, the top of the pecking order, the likes of Nick Daicos and Zak Butters joined them last season, and it’s Isaac Heeney’s and Tom Green’s turn in 2024 to put their hands up.
Isaac Heeney is this year’s Brownlow Medal favourite.Credit: Getty Images
Don’t forget that incredible ball magnet out west, Caleb Serong, either (he had another 37 disposals in Fremantle’s vital victory over Western Bulldogs on Saturday night).
However, on the same weekend Hawthorn and Sydney convinced the legendary – but famously spotlight shy – Lance Franklin to attend the MCG clash between his two old clubs, two of his veteran contemporaries turned back the clock.
Brownlow medallists Patrick Dangerfield and Nat Fyfe were, alongside Franklin and Richmond’s Dustin Martin, the AFL’s four best players in their prime. They are well into their 30s these days, no longer able to be weekly difference-makers, and injuries are popping up more often, including Dangerfield suffering a second hamstring setback this season on Saturday.
Nat Fyfe is turning back the clock.Credit: AFL Photos
But with Carlton destroying the Cats in the clearances, it was “Danger” who rolled up his sleeves and played a huge role in keeping the Blues at bay.
The 34-year-old’s numbers in barely a half of football told much of the story before he walked off sombrely: 16 disposals, 11 contested possessions, seven inside-50s, five score involvements, two centre clearances and a long set-shot goal.
But it was how explosive, athletic and sprightly that Dangerfield looked that must excite coach Chris Scott, even with the hamstring going again. Scott hailed him afterwards as “one of the most influential players on the ground”.
As for Fyfe, he amassed an equal-game-high 37 disposals – an incredible 15 by quarter-time – 18 contested possessions, 10 score involvements, seven clearances and seven inside-50s as he continues to thrive in his return to the midfield.
The champion Docker, fit-again after a series of injuries, did much of his damage with creative handball and often had multiple touches in the same passage from his famed high work-rate.
“I think we’ve seen snippets of [what Fyfe is still capable of] and quarters of it, but we probably haven’t seen a sustained game like that from him since he got back,” coach Justin Longmuir said. “But his body of work since day one of pre-season has been phenomenal.”
No fall in this Waterman
Jake Waterman almost walked out of West Coast in September last year.
Dissatisfied with the Eagles’ latest contract offer after months of negotiations, Waterman – son of dual West Coast premiership defender Chris – was ready to start exploring his options at other clubs, including in Victoria.
There was, of course, also the questioning of how West Coast handled Waterman’s serious and sudden medical condition, which was diagnosed last year as ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
Just as it seemed a new key forward was on the market, the Eagles returned with a better financial offer – still at a pretty modest level – and tacked on a games-based trigger for 2026, but he projects as a free agent at the end of next season.
Jake Waterman is in career-best form for West Coast after almost walking out on the club last year.Credit: WAtoday
Somewhat lost in “Harley fever” is Waterman’s emergence as West Coast’s best key forward, after being picked as only an emergency in round one.
The 25-year-old has typically played third fiddle, at best, to the likes of Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and more recently Oscar Allen, which explains why he never kicked more than 18 goals in a season before now.
Kennedy has his feet up in retirement, Darling is a rapidly fading force, and Allen has not played since round one because of a knee injury, which has unleashed Waterman as the Eagles’ No.1 target inside 50.
Waterman has kicked multiple goals in five of his seven matches this year, including a combined 11 across West Coast’s back-to-back upset wins over Richmond and Fremantle, then four more against Gold Coast on Sunday.
He is up to 100 for his career and a personal-best 21 for the season, good for third-most in the competition. Key forward-needy clubs will surely be monitoring the situation.
Sam Darcy is one of the most promising players in the AFL.Credit: Getty Images
Contrasting nights for promising talls
Giants forward Aaron Cadman.Credit: Getty Images
There are few more exciting key-position talents in the game than Bulldog Sam Darcy and Giant Aaron Cadman, who promise to develop into stars in the years to come.
Cadman was the No.1 pick in the 2022 draft, while the Dogs matched Greater Western Sydney’s bid on Darcy at No.2 the year before that.
Luke Beveridge has tread carefully with Darcy after injuries and growing pains across his first two seasons, but he is emerging in menacing fashion since breaking back into the senior side.
With his father Luke commentating, Darcy snatched two contested marks and booted three goals – a snap on the run and two set shots – to help the Bulldogs cover for Jamarra Ugle-Hagan in a competitive loss to Fremantle.
It was the second time the athletic 208-centimetre giant has kicked three majors this season, on top of two against Gold Coast in his senior return in round three, while spelling Tim English in the ruck.
Beveridge has so far resisted switching Aaron Naughton into defence despite having Darcy, Ugle-Hagan and Rory Lobb, who was dropped to the VFL for a month after round two until Ugle-Hagan’s absence for personal reasons.
As for Cadman, he is enjoying a breakout second season as Jesse Hogan’s sidekick, kicking 10 goals in his first six games, but he struggled mightily on Thursday night with star Lion Harris Andrews patrolling the area.
The 20-year-old finished with five disposals and one goal, while failing to take a mark inside 50 for the first time this season as Andrews snaffled three of his four intercept marks opposed to a frustrated Cadman.
It’s all part of the key-forward apprenticeship.
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