Geelong’s Georgie Rankin on navigating out-of-form 2024 season; Geelong slump to 0-2 to start AFLW season
Georgie Rankin found herself outside Geelong’s best 21 at times in 2024, but has put her best foot forward in 2025 off the back of a body of off-season work. Plus, the Cats’ attitude after a 0-2 start.
Geelong AFLW defender Georgie Rankin quickly got to work in the AFLW off-season in a bid to rediscover her confidence and “competitive nature”.
The 27-year-old found herself in and out of the Cats’ best 21 last year, after playing every game across the prior two seasons.
Dropped after round 2 before earning a recall in round 4, Rankin was omitted a second time against Fremantle, before breaking back in for the final five games of the season.
Teammate Mikayla Bowen believed Rankin’s impressive performance against North Melbourne in round 1 this month was only “a glimpse” of what was in store for the defender, Bowen praising Rankin’s off-season work which included tapping into external resources.
“I got started early, that’s for sure,” Rankin said.
“It’s been definitely the mental side for me.
“I’ve surrounded myself with ones within the club, Flynny’s (backline coach Elise Flynn) been massive for me.”
Stepping outside the four walls of Kardinia Park, Rankin also connected with a holistic athlete development program, as she enters the final year of a multi-year contract in
2025.
“That’s been both through my skills of building my fundamentals and my knowledge of the game... but a lot of work on my mental game and my confidence and backing myself,” she said.
“And it’s not something that happens at a flick of a switch, especially if you do have a season where you fall out of form.
“It doesn’t change overnight, so I’ve put a lot of work into that side of things.
“And then just re-revisiting that competitive nature that, that I probably had wavered a little bit from.”
While Rankin didn’t fall out of love with the game as such, she admitted the season as a whole had been “very challenging”.
A strong sounding board came in the form of captain and fellow defender Meghan McDonald, as well as Flynn and dad John.
“We’re quite like minded and I feel like we can have some really honest, great conversations, so she (McDonald) was huge for me last year,” Rankin said.
“I play the sport because I love it so there’s going to be rocky times.
“(They told me) never forget what it’s like to be the athlete, and so I knew that I need to work on this here and now, but that this is actually going to hold me in really good stead if I can overcome this.”
Geelong will look to kick start its 2025 campaign against Sydney on Saturday after a 0-2 start, the Cats fresh off a horror fourth quarter capitulation to Adelaide where the Crows slammed on seven fourth-quarter goals in the space of 15 minutes.
Rankin admitted while there was a moment of “complete confusion” post-match as to what had happened, their reviews centred on being able to wrestle momentum back when it did shift.
“We’ll go to work … On what that looks like, whether it’s verbal cues, whether it’s physical cues, whether it’s tactical, we’ll work with the coaches on that,” she said.
“But it’s really maintaining a four quarter performance and those ebbs and flows, being able to ride them a bit stronger.”
Earlier: Cats stay calm despite clear final quarter concerns
Geelong AFLW coach Dan Lowther says the Cats must learn from its second final quarter fade-out in as many weeks, though stopped short of labelling the club’s season on the line after starting the year 0-2.
Asked if he felt there was a “sense of urgency” when starting a shortened 12-game season winless following losses to North Melbourne and Adelaide, Lowther said the club aimed to stay level and controlled considering the strength of their early opponents.
But the road doesn’t get any easier for Geelong, who welcome an undefeated Sydney this Saturday – the Swans fresh off an 81-point hammering of Gold Coast – before facing Essendon, who are also 2-0.
“I think it’s well publicised 12 games, you need to get off to a flyer … but who's to say we can’t win the next 10, that’s our attitude,” Lowther said.
“I think we’re playing strong enough for good chunks of the game that if you just get that balance right of consistency then maybe we get over the line and it might build some of our own momentum.
“(But) there is no easy game now the competition is evolving so rapidly.”
The Cats had the Crows’ measure in the opening half of Sunday’s clash to lead by 11, but bled the final nine goals of the day – including seven in the final 15 minutes – to lose by 38 points.
It was a similar fate in the Cats’ opening round loss to North Melbourne, when the reigning premiers slammed on five final quarter goals to run away with a 30-point win.
The Cats failed to handle the heat of the final quarter for a second week, their inability to take their opportunities a killer, as the Crows kicked 9.1 to the Cats’ 0.6 after half time.
“We played three and a bit quarters of good control, good contest, inside-outside control, had time in our front half where maybe a bit of scoreboard pressure might have alleviated some of the opportunity the opposition got in the last,” Lowther said.
“They kick straight, we don’t, they put pressure on and the result is how it is.
“We need to learn from that last quarter for sure.
“It was hard to watch, (and) I thought they got themselves back in a position to compete but they just got overrun in the end.”
The Cats will take positives out of several individual showings, midfielder Georgie Prespakis (30 disposals, nine clearances and 415 metres gained) the Cats best, while second-gamer and ruck Piper Dunlop took plenty from her battle with three-time all-Australian Jess Allan.
Meanwhile, star forward Aishling Moloney started strongly but didn’t get reward for her marking dominance on set shots to finish with 2.3 – though sailed through one goal of the year contender, coming off one step to snap it directly over her head from 35m.
“She’s an all-Australian for a reason, she’s hard to beat one-on-one, she’s got great goal savviness,” Lowther said.
“Just kind of lost her way toward the back end of it, I suppose the ball not giving herself a chance to be her best at times.
“She had two or three opportunities early which could have made her game a lot stronger, but she’s a gun.”
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