BRING ON OLD ENEMY
... but has Jimmy just said goodbye?
GEELONG last year brought forward the announcements of the futures of Mathew Stokes, James Kelly and Steve Johnson to ensure the premiership trio received a hometown send-off fitting of their careers.
With finals out of the equation, the Round 23 match against Adelaide was rightfully all about them and their mighty deeds in the club’s greatest ever period of success.
The Cats will enter this year’s finals series with unanswered questions about the future of three more of their most loyal and dependable veterans.
Any of Jimmy Bartel, Tom Lonergan and Corey Enright could have walked off Simonds Stadium for the final time on Saturday after Geelong’s 111-point thumping of Melbourne. That’s a sobering thought.
Even if the futures of these players for next year have been decided, Geelong, obviously, is not in a position to orchestrate a swan song or farewell tour like it did last year, or like North Melbourne has done with its four axed champions.
There is no need for a sideshow like that during what is fast becoming a legitimate premiership campaign that starts in a fortnight’s time.
Bartel has a contract on the table for next year if he wants it after reaching his 18-game trigger clause. He kicked three goals on Saturday and was embraced each time with the rich affection befitting his career, highlighted by the magic chant late in the last quarter. It was spine-tingling theatre.
It’s not necessarily a done deal that he will play on next year. There is a bit to play out.
It was as if the crowd sensed it: if this is the last time, Jimmy, thank you for everything.
Lonergan, 32, said last week he had not yet had any serious discussions with the club about next year, with his focus remaining locked on the looming premiership tilt.
Enright has seemingly been playing his last year for the past few seasons, but perhaps he is serious this time.
There is no doubt his form warrants another year and the Cats have publicly declared they are open to the idea of him playing an 18th season.
But Enright is coy and like the other two, there are no guarantees.
Enright last year set scuttlebutt into overdrive in that final Adelaide game when he wandered on to Simonds Stadium in the fading daylight once all the commotion had passed, looking everything like a retiring footballer.
But he played on, not wanting any grand announcements, and many hope he will be tempted to do so again.
The Lonergan situation has escaped the headlines.
He is still required to take the opposition’s best key forward every week and he would not be taking up excessive salary cap space.
Saturday marked 10 years almost to the day since the sickening on-field collision that claimed a kidney and almost his life against Melbourne in late 2006.
The Cats showed amazing loyalty to Lonergan during that time, recontracting him as a rookie when perhaps his position on the list was up for debate after just seven AFL games in four seasons.
Lonergan then returned that loyalty at the end of 2014 when he knocked back a lucrative advance from the Western Bulldogs.
The Dogs came knocking with a tidy three-year contract that would have taken his career to at least the end of 2017.
Lonergan agonised over the offer, was close to leaving Geelong but ultimately stayed on a shorter deal that expires at season’s end. He will have a chance to become a 200-game player if he plays on.
The uncertainty meant one could not help but analyse the behaviour of the three players in much the same way Gary Ablett was examined for clues when he walked off after that 2010 preliminary final against Collingwood.