SKIPPER PRIMED FOR CATS’ CUP QUEST
Selwood opens up on going close, his love of the game and expectations for 2022
A STUDENT of football history, Joel Selwood knows how close he came to being a premiership captain.
In recent memory, perhaps only the 2009-10 St Kilda came as near as Geelong to flag glory over the 2019-20 stretch.
In those years, the Cats had Richmond on the ropes, one goal from being on the canvas each time in pulsating preliminary and grand finals.
Both times the caged Tigers hit back, with Tom Lynch and Dustin Martin dragging their side past the men in hoops and on the road to becoming a modern dynasty.
Mysterious virus aside, Geelong was again steamrolled in the second half of a season-ending contest in 2021 as another potential dynasty reared its head and Max Gawn became Wayne Carey in Aaron Sandilands’ body for 25 minutes.
It is a repeat of a story told throughout Selwood’s captaincy run.
A nightmare came true in 2013 when the Hawks blew up the “Kennett curse” and a sloppy start against Sydney took away another golden chance in 2016.
In each of those seasons – aside from 2016, where the underdogs from Melbourne’s west triumphed – Geelong came close, only to watch an allconquering team lift the cup in front of them.
In those losses, Selwood knows his side was simply beaten by a better team.
But he also knows how close he has come over and over to holding the cup up himself.
“I am a footy tragic, like most of our guys,” he said.
“We understand that we have been close without getting there and we just try to put ourselves in the best position throughout the season that we can.
“We would have liked to do things a bit better come September and that new season (finals), yes. But it is really hard.”
Falling short because the best finals player of all-time boots four goals against you at the Gabba or because a beanpole who would stand over NBA players snaps goals from the Optus Stadium boundary looks like bad luck from where the losers sit.
And luck plays its role in every premiership story.
Selwood will forever wonder what would have happened if the virus did not sweep through the Cats camp last year, or if Tom Stewart, Mark O’Connor and Brandan Parfitt were available.
Melbourne was so healthy last year that James Jordan was made the sub in the grand final after playing 25 games in 2021 and was given a premiership medal despite not playing a minute during the match.
For Selwood, though, luck is only one ingredient.
“There are parts that are bad luck but it is not all bad luck, they were just better,” he said.
“You have to appreciate that sides get to the same position as you and put so much time in and there is only going to be one winner and for the rest of it, it probably looks like everyone else fails unless you are a young side that is coming up and has blooded a lot of kids.
“It looks like the majority of sides fail throughout a footy season, which I don’t think is necessarily the case, but it does appear that way.”
MORE THAN A GAME
FOR most people sitting in the stands, winning is everything in football.
For some players, that is the same, but for many it is similar to any workplace.
Some people like their jobs because of the work, some like the status or the pay, but Selwood loves a combination of winning, the work itself and being around his people.
“It is the love of the game, love of work and the people I work with,” he said.
“To be honest, I keep it probably as simple as that. It is not so much about the winning side of it then (during training), it is about preparing to play.
“My favourite time in the footy world is game day, just waking up and knowing you are going to absolutely exhaust yourself that day and you are not sure what you are going to come up against.”
Keeping that level of enjoyment in the game and the job can easily get lost among the results.
“Individuals and players lose that side of it a lot,” Selwood said. “We just try to create a culture within our guys that might not suit all of them but if we can get them smiling and loose and enjoying it and just letting it rip, then hopefully we get the best out of them by doing that, rather than making them robots.
“The game has a lot of staff and coaches and whatnot now, the players can become people that they not necessarily were when they came in.”
Selwood spends a lot of time thinking about the path his young teammates will take in the game.
One of his favourite parts of any season is seeing that youngster stake a claim and finally own a spot in the club’s best 22.
“I love the competitive nature of it,” he said.
“Not everyone has it straight away but I love when guys have to fight for spots and get in, and you have to fight for it once you are in there. You can never rest on your laurels and it puts the side in good stead going forward, that is the bit I appreciate more than anyone else.”
POWERING ON
A WORKHORSE who famously slid down the 2006 AFL draft because of wonky knees, Selwood continues to power through as one of the most durable players in the game’s history.
He has already passed Corey Enright to go clear as the most capped Cat yet and he needs to lead his side out three times to skip past Stephen Kernahan’s long-standing mark of 226 games as captain, an AFL/VFL record.
Heading into his 16th season, Selwood was typically coy about his future and is not sure what will come next when he gives the game away, as he ponders coaching, the media or anything else in football.
“Let’s just say I am closer to the end than the start,” he said.
Only once – in 2020 when he played 15 times – has Selwood played fewer than 20 times in a season.
And only once (2015) in his 15 seasons has the skipper missed the finals. Each year, Selwood walks into a club that is expecting to play finals and not only make the top eight but the top four.
But after winning three flags in his first five seasons, he has gone a decade without adding another premiership medal.
Star teammates have gone and come to the club, but the Cats have still been in a position to play finals without going all the way. That top-four expectation is set again at Geelong in 2022, though it is another year of doubters questioning the club’s age profile, its game plan and its recruiting.
It is business as usual for Selwood and his teammates. “We try to pass that on to individuals within the footy club that we are going to play off,” he said.
“We are going to do everything we can to set this year up, starting in November and December, and we are going to put ourselves in a position to play off (in finals). “That comes from a level that is dictated at the board, all the way through Andrew Mackie and Stephen Wells (the list management team) to make a choice on what the list looks like and the coaches have to be up for the fight as well.
“To be part of an organisation that says, ‘Let’s have a go’, is an organisation that I like working for.”
Work, play and love are all the same for Selwood once he goes through the door at GMHBA Stadium for each day of his job. A tragic of football history, he knows each day that ends in a smile gets him closer to finally lifting that cup.
I AM A FOOTY TRAGIC LIKE MOST OF OUR GUYS. WE UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE BEEN CLOSE WITHOUT GETTING THERE AND WE JUST TRY TO PUT OURSELVES IN THE BEST POSITION THROUGHOUT THE SEASON THAT WE CAN.