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Geelong forward Cameron Mooney has warned his teammates their AFL premiership window is closing – maybe as soon as Saturday’s grand final.
Mooney, a dual flag winner with the Cats in 2007 and North Melbourne in 1999, says the Cats’ third successive grand final appearance is perhaps a last chance to make something of three years of home-and-away excellence.
And the threat of being left with more losers’ than winners’ medals to show for their dominant period is not lost on Mooney.
“You get a three, maybe four-year window if you’re lucky,” he said on Sunday.
“We’re obviously in our third year. Have we got the legs to go around again? I don’t know.
“This might be our last shot at it.”
Mooney said the Cats’ shock defeat to Hawthorn last year had been a silent spur for the team in 2009.
“It has been in the back of everyone’s minds – it’s not something we’ve talked about or sat down and discussed but from the moment we got back to pre-season you could see it was burning in everybody,” Mooney said of last year’s defeat.
“Hopefully with a bit of luck this week we’ll come away with a win.
“If we can win two out of three, it’s a great record.”
Mooney’s goalkicking yips have been the subject of much debate – his 2.3 in last year’s grand final including two crucial misses either side of halftime which allowed Hawthorn to wriggle off the hook.
But Mooney, who will celebrate his 30th birthday on grand final day, showed steel in the Cats’ preliminary final to nail a crucial third-quarter free kick which helped bury Collingwood.
His goal – which came after two earlier misses – gave the Cats a 24-point lead early in the third quarter which they used to build momentum for an eventual 73-point whipping of the `Pies.
“My kicking’s fine. I feel really good out there at the moment,” Mooney said.
Geelong’s mixed bag of grand final experience does provide some edge against St Kilda, who haven’t made a grand final since 1997 and have won just one – in 1966.
“We’re a bit older, a bit stronger and hopefully we’ve learned over the last couple of years and that will hold us in very good stead on Saturday,” Mooney said.
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