Inside Geelong’s rise from disappointing flag defence to top four

Many wrote Geelong off in the pre-season, but the Cats are back in premiership contention. We take an in-depth look at how they did it — and it was much more than just a favourable draw.

Geelong has jumped from 12th to the top four in the space of a year in a rise few saw coming.

Many had the Cats missing the finals altogether – and fair enough too.

Geelong had the oldest list in the competition last season, and its ageing stars weren’t getting any younger.

They had an eerily quiet trade period and hit the draft hard, but even then the names they picked weren’t overly inspiring at the time.

How have the Cats managed to claw their way back, as they have made a habit of over the 21st century?

It is more than meets the eye on the surface.

Tyson Stengle has been a part of Geelong’s improvement. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

INJURY LUCK

Ask anyone at the Cats what has changed from 2023 to 2024, and they’ll tell you that a clean bill of health has played a part.

Geelong began its premiership defence in 2023 ravaged with injury and paid the price, losing the first three games of the season.

It meant they were fighting an uphill battle from that point on, and injuries to Cam Guthrie and Patrick Dangerfield from there made things difficult.

Geelong lost 171 games to injury last year in total – the ninth most in the competition — but the setbacks came to key players and at untimely intervals.

Premiership players Cam Guthrie (15 games), Jack Henry (12), Rhys Stanley (nine), Gary Rohan (7), Mitch Duncan (six) and Patrick Dangerfield all missed over five games.

Sam De Koning (four) – who played hurt, including with the infamous black face mask – and Tyson Stengle (four) were unable to reach the heights of their 2022 campaigns after interruptions of their own.

Stengle and Henry have been pivotal this year, with Stengle earning All-Australian squad recognition after producing a season arguably just as good as 2022, while Henry has been back to his best after a spate of foot setbacks.

This year, the Cats have the fifth healthiest list, having lost 139 games to injury.

The luckless Guthrie (19) again leads the way along with Tom Hawkins (12), Dangerfield (9) and Tanner Bruhn (7).

Most of their long-term injuries have been to fringe or developing players.

The club has had great continuity across 2024 and began the season with few injury concerns to speak of aside from Guthrie.

Seven Cats have played every game — Max Holmes, Zach Guthrie, Gryan Miers, Ollie Dempsey, Stengle, Henry, Brad Close — while 15 have played 20 or more.

This was all while taking a cautious approach with veterans, like captain Dangerfield when he suffered his second hamstring injury.

While plenty of it is about luck – just look at Carlton’s and Collingwood’s injury woes this year – it was also good management.

The Cats used the longer pre-season to their advantage, a rarity for this club given they hadn’t missed finals since 2015.

Cam Guthrie has had no luck with injury again in 2024. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

“There is a lot of luck that goes into winning a premiership and last year we fought our way back from a pretty poor start and this year we gave ourselves a bit of a clean slate off a longer run-up. We had a longer preparation, we had a lot of our list do a whole pre-season which has held us in good stead,” vice-captain Stewart said.

“You can’t control injuries with ‘Guth’ and ‘Hawk’ and the like, but we’ve had a relatively healthy list all year which is certainly great. The young kids have got the opportunity to train with senior players, not just against themselves for long periods of time, which is obviously holding them in really good stead as well.”

Players were able to go under the knife early – some of those after their loss to St Kilda in round 23 last year after their finals hopes were dashed – and get a far better preparation into them than the previous season.

“Post that (St Kilda) game we had a couple of guys go in for surgery who were really struggling and I think on reflection some those guys, if were in that position again, we wouldn’t have kept playing them,” Scott said in August.

EASY DRAW

A favourable draw can only get you so far when the whips are cracking in September.

Geelong was the beneficiary of that this year after a 12th placed finish, which is perhaps why the Cats have flown under the radar despite being in a strong position to contend for a premiership.

Interestingly, the Cats have played just three games against the other top-four finishers this season and lost all three.

But they were in it up to their eyeballs against all of them.

Two of those matches were consecutive home losses to Port Adelaide and GWS by a cumulative total of 10 points, where the games see-sawed with momentum.

In the other, the Cats burst out of the blocks against Sydney away from home before the fast-finishing Sydney ran over the top of them in the end.

Geelong after the loss to Port Adelaide. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Geelong also played 2023 grand finalists Collingwood and Brisbane just once this year, winning both of those matches when those sides were in slumps.

The Cats have faced the other three finalists twice, convincingly beating Hawthorn in both their meetings and splitting the points with the Western Bulldogs and Carlton, with heavy losses to both coming in the back-half of the season.

In all, Geelong is 5-5 against other finalists this year – which isn’t a bad return – with their other 10 wins coming against bottom 10 sides.

That’s not to say none of those were memorable in one of the tightest finals races in AFL history.

The Cats knocked off Fremantle at Perth Stadium, which was ultimately the difference between the Dockers making the eight, and ended their own form slump with a thumping win over Essendon in round 16.

SHREWD RECRUITING

Ollie Dempsey, Shaun Mannagh and Lawson Humphries all came via the road less travelled.

But all three have been an integral part of the Cats’ rise and prove Geelong has one of the best recruiting teams in the caper.

Dempsey was lighting up the track as a half-forward during the pre-season after being selected in the VFL team of the year in 2023, and his three goals and three score assists against St Kilda in round one was a sign of things to come.

Dempsey won the AFL Rising Star award last week in just his third season since being plucked from obscurity out of school footy.

This season he has evolved into a dynamic and agile wingman with plenty of x-factor.

“Ollie came in as a scrawny basketballer that had no idea about footy and I think he still has that attitude towards the game. He is always smiling, he is always happy, he is always giving me cuddles and telling me to cheer up because I’m a grumpy old prick,” Stewart said.

“He can jump, he can run, he is creative, he sees the game like basketball and he has fun doing it. That’s the one thing I love about Ollie more than anything, just the joy he brings to our club.”

Ollie Dempsey has been a revelation. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Mannagh and Humphries both weren’t on Geelong’s list this time last year, and at round 15 this season they were both playing in the reserves.

The story of Mannagh from country footy to the VFL to the Cats is well known, but it is a credit to the Cats for taking a risk on the 26-year-old.

It would be easy to then play him for the sake of it, but they allowed him to bide his time in the reserves and now they are reaping the rewards.

Meanwhile, Humphries was taken with the second last pick in the draft – the late selection Geelong was haggling for from Port Adelaide in the Esava Ratugolea trade – and started the 2023 season in the WAFL reserves competition.

Humphries’ stellar form at VFL has translated and he has been a revelation late in the year off halfback.

Geelong didn’t get any big names in the trade period, but that move alone has got them a player of the future.

Then there is but also the improvement of the emerging talents who were already at the club.

Speedster Max Holmes – another player the Cats took a draft punt on – has gone to another level as both a halfback flanker and an inside midfielder, earning a spot in the All-Australian squad.

It is difficult to believe he has only just turned 22.

Bruhn, Ollie Henry and Jack Bowes arrived via trades at the end of 2022, all taken as first round picks from rival clubs.

Bowes and Bruhn have improved their output this year as midfielders and Henry has maintained the high standard he set in 2023.

Shannon Neale has also stepped up when Hawkins has been out late in the season and looks to have a bright future ahead.

Max Holmes went up a gear in 2024. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

FRESH SET OF EYES

There hasn’t been a lot of fanfare about James Rahilly and Steven King’s return to the club in the off-season, but their impact has certainly been felt internally.

Rahilly moved from the Cats to the Crows at the end of 2020, which Scott said was infuenced by Covid.

He turned Adelaide into a dangerous offensive threat before returning to the Cats as forwards coach at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, former Geelong captain King returned to the Cats after standing in Gold Coast interim coach for seven games last season.

King handed the Sherrin on a platter to Geelong on-ballers as a player, and now he is helping Cats midfielders thrive as a coach.

“They have been fantastic for us and I knew James Rahilly really well, he was really a victim of Covid and I was rapt and the club was rapt to get him back, so that was a coup for us,” Scott said.

“Our optimism around the contributions he would make has been realised. I didn’t know King as well, but came highly regarded, was obviously at the Cats and captained the club before I arrived, but he has been terrific as well.”

Steven King was interim coach of Gold Coast. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Stewart feels Rahilly has returned even better.

“He has come back a lot more confident in his ability to coach and the things that he values in the forward half,” Stewart said.

“He has got some amazing weapons up there that are pretty decent, but the way he gets the boys to buy into those structures and the patterns and the roles that he expects them to play is really, really first class.”

Bowes spent a season with King at Gold Coast and the pair have been reunited at the Cats, where they have worked closely together.

“He has obviously made a massive impact. New set of eyes, new game plan, new structures, feel like he connects really well with the other the coaches, the messaging has been really clear,” Bowes said.

“Can’t fault him in the way he’s gone about it this year he’s been awesome and he instilled a lot of confidence, particularly in myself and the other younger midfielders as well.

“He is a very experienced coach, he has been at a lot of different footy clubs, he understands the game really well, the coaches us to our strengths and what we’re good at.

“Off the field he is someone who is good to build relationships with and gets to know his players and he has been a great inclusion for us this year.”

DEFENSIVE PROFILE

The stats show that the most dramatic improvement from 2023 to 2024 has been in their defence, headed by assistant James Kelly.

With three premierships under his belt as a player, he would know full well that restricting and punishing sides on turnover is critical to success.

Geelong has the second best defensive profile in the competition according to Champion Data

Put simply, sides struggle to move the ball freely against Scott’s side, and when they get the ball inside their offensive 50, the Cats can contain the opposition.

The Cats are the top team in the competition for midfield intercepts. They also rank fourth for scores conceded per inside 50 — last year, they were bottom four in this key area.

“We are really happy with the (coaching) group we have got. We think the four of us - if you include James Kelly and I - in that quartet I feel like we have got a really good understanding and are really serving the players well at the moment,” Scott said.

The Cats have already proved their pre-season doubters wrong by making it this far, but the real test starts now.

Originally published as Inside Geelong’s rise from disappointing flag defence to top four