ADAPTING FOR SUCCESS
An ability to spot talent has helped the Cats turn their list around after 2015, writes Josh Barnes I think we had a good bit of inside knowledge through having Eddie Betts – the great Eddie Betts – come and join our club and being able to pick his brain
JOSHABTAtRhNeEeSnd of 2015, Geelong faced the cliff.
It was a spot the club would be told it was in from the outside for years and would be reminded of for coming seasons as well.
Geelong had missed the finals that year and in the final game of the season they chaired off premiership heroes Steve Johnson, James Kelly and Mathew Stokes.
For any other club in the modern era that would have been it.
The slide would have begun, the draft picks accumulated and the rebuild in full swing.
But Geelong is not every other club and is yet to miss out on September again.
On that same day, Adelaide star Patrick Dangerfield had to stop himself from laughing as he lined up for goal in front of the parochial Geelong fans at GMHBA Stadium, opposition fans who gave him a standing ovation.
“I was doing my best to try and not smile because how is that going to be perceived?” Dangerfield said.
“I was laughing
in my head own head but tried to put that out of my mind a bit.”
And the Cats must have been smiling too.
Dangerfield was well on the way to Kardinia Park that day and with him Geelong would trade in Lachie Henderson and Zac Smith, while signing Scott Selwood as a free agent.
From that point on the word “rebuild” has been sacrilege in the Geelong offices.
As free agency opened player movement up and trading became all the more common, Stephen Wells and Andrew Mackie’s list management team have forged what could become a premiership list.
CHANGING FACE
You only have to look back to Geelong’s breakthrough premiership in 2007 to see how much list management has changed.
In the side that embarrassed Port Adelaide to the tune of 119 points that year, just three Cats – Cameron Mooney, Tom Harley and Brad Ottens – weren’t drafted by the club.
That team boasted a tall crop of top-end talent drafted early such as Joel Corey (draft pick eight), Jimmy Bartel (eight), Mackie (seven) and Joel Selwood (seven). Of Geelong’s side that will run out against Sydney in the grand final on Saturday, just Selwood was drafted by the Cats inside the top 10.
The triumphant side that flattened the Brisbane Lions in last week’s preliminary final boasted seven players – Jeremy Cameron, Patrick Dangerfield, Gary Rohan, Isaac Smith, Rhys Stanley,
Tyson Stengle and Zach
Tuohy – who started their careers elsewhere.
The Cats have had to adapt to keep trucking since 2015.
They had to hit on some big moves – Dangerfield and Cameron both wanted to join the club at the right time – and grab those on the scrap heap.
Stengle was widely perceived as the best player outside of the AFL for most of 2021 and it was the Cats who were certain that off-field issues wouldn’t impact his onfield impact.
“We’ve done our research, we’ve made our inquiries and I think we had a good bit of inside knowledge through having Eddie Betts – the great Eddie Betts – come and join our club and being able to pick his brain about Tyson Stengle, who he has great faith in,” Wells said in October.
The small forward will now line up against the Swans with an All-Australian blazer on a coathanger in his cupboard after an astonishing first season in the hoops.
Others such as Rohan, Tuohy and Stanley came across to the Cats with minimal fanfare but have each played the best football of their respective careers in blue and white, filling vital holes.
As good as a trade, Max Holmes was snapped up by the Cats on draft night in 2020, when Geelong traded a future pick for Richmond’s choice to snare Holmes in a move that looks more and more inspired every week.
The go-home factor has no doubt helped Geelong.
But so too has a football program built on trust, empowering senior players to come into the club, do their work and go home to their families.
When leaving Hawthorn, Smith could have gone to play
STEPHEN WELLS
with Melbourne and while living in central Geelong was the major factor, he has soaked up the football program that allows him to cruise into work on his bicycle and roll home when he needs to.
Defender Jed Bews is sure it is an advantage that has helped draw in veterans.
“It allows for real work-life balance and I think that’s what attracts players to come here, to be treated like an adult and have that trust,” he said.
The nature of Geelong’s effort to build on the run means there have been misses.
Players such as Mitch
Clark, Josh Jenkins, Jack Steven and Shaun Higgins didn’t quite work out but, as any baseballer will tell you, you have to pick up a strike or two for every home run.
FRINGE MASTERS
Without top-tier draft picks, Geelong has been outstanding at finding talent elsewhere.
Mark Blicavs could well win a best-and-fairest in a premiership year when the
count takes place next week and Tom Stewart will not be far behind him.
Famously, Blicavs was running on the rust of athletics tracks more than green grass when the Cats rookied him.
Just as famously, Stewart picked up a GFL premiership with South Barwon en route to the VFL and is now arguably the best defender in the land.
Those two incredible selections are not alone.
Rookie-listed pair Tom Atkins (Geelong VFL) and
Brad Close (Glenelg, SANFL) were obscure picks that look like 200-gamers.
Gryan Miers kicked goals for fun at NAB League level but wasn’t sought after and slipped to pick No.57, Mark O’Connor chose Geelong when flying in from County Kerry and Jack Henry turned from rookie flyer to ultradependable swingman.
With generational players like Joel Selwood, Tom Hawkins, Dangerfield, Stewart and Cameron in the side it seems obvious that Geelong would want to win the flag every year.
Going after the silverware every year is now ingrained in the club and when asked in the pre-season about why
Geelong was willing to put itself on the edge of that cliff time and time again, Chris Scott said it was down to the players.
“We owe our senior players a lot for what they have done for our footy club and in return we have tried to tell them that ‘we are going to give you a chance this year if things go right to win it’ (the premiership),” he said.
One game away from a premiership, there is no plummeting down the cliffface any time soon for the Cats.