HE’S BACK: Cameron Mooney’s exclusive column
Spotlight’s on stars, but younger players need to step up too
ALL of the talk about Geelong over summer has surrounded its midfield.
It is hard to ignore the hype given the starting on-ball brigade will consist of Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood, Gary Ablett and Mitch Duncan, who is often forgotten but is a star in his own right.
But for the Cats to be a genuine premiership contender this season the improvement has to come from outside of this group.
Harry Taylor and Tom Hawkins, and even Zach Tuohy, can be thrown into the same category because you know what you will get from them each week.
But what has to happen for the Cats to make the leap from preliminary finalists to grand finalists is pretty simple.
It is time for the club’s younger batch of players to contribute on a more consistent basis.
The Western Bulldogs and Richmond didn’t rise to the top on the back of their stars — albeit Dustin Martin’s year in 2017 was very special.
In contrast, their success was built on the back of the improvement seen in the likes of young guys such as Daniel Rioli, Dan Butler and Jason Castagna, and at the Dogs, with Caleb Daniel and Toby McLean — all of whom loved to chase, harass and pressure their opposition.
So who has to do the same thing at Geelong?
Nakia Cockatoo is the ace up Chris Scott’s sleeve, and he has teased us for long enough now so it is time to deliver.
When he is good he is brilliant to watch, but it needs to happen more often.
At 21 and with 32 games under his belt, the time is right for Cockatoo to show the competition just how good a player he is.
Brandan Parfitt has had a taste of the big time and should be a regular in the senior line up.
Cory Gregson and Lincoln McCarthy have missed a lot of football between them, which has hurt Geelong, and if you’re looking at the model of the Bulldogs and Richmond with forward pressure, you need these zippy guys to be playing if that is the game style you want to adopt. Draftee Gryan Miers is renowned for his forward pressure and kicked 50 goals in the TAC Cup last year, so he knows where the big sticks are and every now and then you see a young livewire forward who takes the game on in his first season.
Cyril Rioli did it for Hawthorn back in 2008 and while Miers might not reach those levels immediately, he could be that type of player for the Cats who does the miraculous things inside-50 and come finals time he could be vital.
Another player I love is James Parsons and I want to see him get some more midfield time because when he goes in there he can hold his own.
That also allows Dangerfield to go forward and if Geelong is going to be a better scoring team this year, as much as you want one of your best players running around the middle of the ground, he has to spend more time in the forward half of the ground.
Tim Kelly fits into the same category because he is ready made and can win his own ball and he can take the pressure off Selwood and Ablett at the coal face.
You would expect he wouldn’t get as tired as quickly some of the younger guys so he can give some good minutes in there which will ease the load on his teammates.
In the back half I’m hoping that Jackson Thurlow can be Geelong’s running defender who genuinely breaks lines with his pace and opens up the ground coming out of the back line.
He has had a season to get back into it after a knee reconstruction so this could be the year we see him at his best.
Last year it felt like Geelong didn’t have the ability to run the ball out of their backline but with Thurlow down there that should change.
“I want to see him get some more midfield time because when he goes in there he can hold his own.” CAMERON MOONEY ON GEELONG YOUNGSTER JAMES PARSONS