‘BETTER AGAIN’

Cats hungry for more as Kelly declares we can be …

GEELONG assistant coach James Kelly has “absolute trust” the Cats will come back ready for pre-season and “will try and get our game better again” in a bid to repeat as premiers.

In destroying Sydney in Saturday’s grand final by 81 points, Geelong played almost the perfect game.

The Cats had talked all year about seeking improvement each week and working to get better and that goal was realised in the ultimate way as Geelong waltzed to the premiership.

Despite winning nine flags previously, the Cats have only gone back-to-back once, in 1951-52.

Kelly said there was an ingrained culture of seeking improvement and that would not change now.

“It was great (this year) the mindset about searching for constant improvement is important,” he said.

“Next year we will try and get our game better again.

“(We) got over that first hump in the first final and they just played better and better footy as the game wore on (in the grand final) and they kept playing the right way, so I am really proud of them.”

Kelly resumed at Geelong before last pre-season, returning to the club where he played in three premierships.

He said he was impressed from the outset by the standards at training and knew that would be repeated again in a couple of months when pre-season started again.

“I have absolute trust in that,” Kelly said.

“Just the way they embraced training in November and December, everyone came back fit and enthusiastic and they were willing to learn. That is all you can ask for from the players, that they show up and train hard and they did that every day this year and there wasn’t really a time as coaches where we had to challenge them about the way they were training or preparing.

“The effort for Geelong players is implied, we assume they will give good effort and they did.”

Having celebrated three flags as a player, Kelly was relaxed in the corner of the changerooms on Saturday night, quietly enjoying a beer and soaking up the moment.

“I’m just so happy for the boys. The amount of work they put in for a really long time, to see them walking around with medals around their necks and smiles on their faces, it’s a great feeling,” he said.