AFLW 2024: Geelong assistant football boss Brett Johnson gives insight on key off-season decisions

Geelong made moves in the off-season to ensure they are challenging for premierships in the future. The Cats’ assistant footy boss sheds light on how it all played out.

Georgie Prespakis and Nina Morrison after the preliminary final loss. Picture: Albert Perez/Getty Images

The AFLW sign, trade and draft period is over and Geelong managed to bring in two promising draftees and a young midfielder from Brisbane.

The Cats’ assistant football boss Brett Johnson reveals what was going on behind the scenes and the reasons behind their off-season moves, signing spree and more.

What was the process in taking father-daughter Bryde O’Rourke?

Brett Johnson: We kind of became aware earlier this year that Bryde could be a father-daughter nomination for us and once we became aware of that it didn’t take long for us to decide that we’d work with Bryde to put a nomination in, following her closely throughout the year at Bendigo Pioneers she had a terrific season.

She spent a little bit of time at the club as well getting familiar with the place and glad it worked out well. We were rapt to have Bryde join the club (at pick 23) and looking forward to her getting stuck into it next year.

Bryde O'Rourke received a bid from Melbourne at pick 23. Picture: Kelly Defina/AFL Photos

Were there any other bid threats earlier in the draft?

Brett Johnson: It was part of our planning, we were looking at a lot of other different scenarios. We were expecting a bid to come at some point, whether it came before our first pick at pick 17, we were prepared for that as well. Either way, Bryde was definitely going to be here at the club and glad that she is.

Also really glad that we could take Chantal at pick 17, being a local, captain of Geelong College, had a terrific year at the Falcons – I think she kicked 36.17, so we think she’s got really high potential as a tall forward. Has really good hands, good forward craft, good set shot on goal. We think if we can help build her running capacity we think she can have a career in AFLW.

How did the trade for Lion Bella Smith play out?

Brett Johnson: We sort of became aware of Bella’s situation quite early in the sign and trade period actually and had a couple of catch-ups with her. Her agent understands what she wanted to achieve with her footy moving forward and whether Geelong would be a good fit for her and it would be a good fit for us so it didn’t take long for us to realise that would be the case.

She has already played at AFLW level, been involved in a really good program, she has had a good baseline foundation of physical development already and we think she can add a lot to us on-field in terms of through the midfield and forward. She is very competitive, tough, can really help us in that side of the game.

She is a really good runner as well so that second phase transition type game I think will be important for us as well. Obviously losing Renee Garing through retirement, we need to be thinking about who’s going to fill that role as well and Bella could potentially do that for us.

She has got the capacity to do that, she has done it at AFLW level before in a good program. We still think there’s a lot of upside in her game being only young and she was coming off an ACL injury this season so we think she will only get better from here.

The Cats believe Bella Smith has plenty of upside. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Were you disappointed to lose Annabel Johnson in trade period?

Brett Johnson: Always disappointed to lose good people from your program but ‘Bel’ was keen to get back to WA to be with her mum over there and just wanted a bit of a fresh start as well. We were supportive of that and facilitated that with West Coast which also meant we got Bella in from the Lions too.

How did you manage to pull off the Cats signing spree with several multi-year deals?

Brett Johnson: We are very happy with what we’ve been able to do over this last couple of weeks and to have the number of players recommit to us, to the program and longer-term it is really important for the future of our AFLW program on-field.

It was a relatively smooth process, obviously coming off a really good season and playing in a prelim final and getting close to playing in a grand final I think the players can sense that we are certainly on the right path and have been building for a few seasons now and want to stay on the journey with us. It is a fantastic result for the club.

Is the aim to push for premierships now after your successful 2024 season?

Brett Johnson: That’s the aim yeah, we want to continue to improve every season. And that’s what we’ve been focused on the last three seasons. We won two games in season six, played a final in season seven and got to a prelim final in season eight.

We just want to keep improving all parts of the program and our game on-field. If we do that, hopefully it takes care of itself. Competition is getting harder, there’s a lot of talent coming through SA – I think Port Adelaide are going to improve next season.

We saw Sydney’s rise this season in their second season, Essendon got better as well this season so some of those expansion clubs are getting better.

There’s a lot of young talent coming through Queensland so Brisbane will be strong again, Gold Coast will continue to improve, West Coast obviously getting Daisy as a coach, they are going to get better too.

The competition is getting harder, that is out of our control but what we can control is continue to improve the areas we are focused on.

Originally published as AFLW 2024: Geelong assistant football boss Brett Johnson gives insight on key off-season decisions