Are the Cats The Beatles of modern-day footy? Since 2007 the Cats have been as unstoppable as the Fab Four were when they released Sgt Pepper’s in 1967. Take a look.
Season 2007 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Both changed the landscape. Sgt. Pepper’s blew minds with its sonic experimentation, Geelong did the same with the biggest ever grand final win.
Season 2008 – The White Album
If you cut the fat from The White Album you still have a pretty stunning record. Without a few missed shots in the grand final, things could’ve been very different for the Cats.
Season 2009 – Abbey Road
Breathtaking from front to back. By the time Abbey Road came out you knew what you were going to get from the Beatles. In season 2009 you knew what you were going to get from the Cats, as they rolled to their second premiership.
Season 2010 – Let It Be
What could have been. Let It Be was over-produced by a greedy Phil Spector just as a fried Mark Thompson curtailed the Geelong season in the preliminary finals.
Season 2011 – Revolver
This Geelong team were young and fresh faced just as the Liverpudlians were with Revolver. Like every great band or footy club , they were gutsy and cutthroat in another premiership success.
Season 2012 – Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles still made great records and Geelong still made the finals, but they didn’t live up to the hype and ran out of puff too early.
2013 – Rubber Soul
Made by a bunch of kids, Geelong’s preliminary final loss to the eventual premiers was awesome but there was better to come.
Like a good Beatles album, every time the Cats open a new season, a little ray of sunshine reveals themselves, and there are new developments to keep things fresh.
Statistically it’s tough to gauge the Cats, they’ve been so good for so long. And with the turnover of kids they’ve got in the last few seasons it wouldn’t make sense stat bashing.
Joel Selwood is the best captain in the competition and will be in Brownlow Medal contention again. Steve Johnson is a magician and James Kelly has been doing it well for so long. Jimmy Bartel is ageing but not losing any of his footy nous.
Matthew Stokes, Mitch Duncan and Josh Caddy all went to the next level last season. So did Steve Motlop and Allen Christensen, their early-season loss could hurt more than we think.
Cameron Guthrie and George Horlin-Smith have built up their engines and will spend more time in the midfield, as will Billie Smedts and Taylor Hunt.
How much firepower have they lost? James Posiadly and Paul Chapman were in their top-10 goal kickers last season, as were Motlop and Christensen. It will be interesting to see if they will miss the J-Pod or Chapman, or if they’ll be forgotten as quickly as one-time Beatles Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best.
Key forward Tom Hawkins’ back injury curtailed his 2013 output. If the Tomahawk is fit, the Cats will go deep into September.
With the forward line vacancies, new goal kickers are needed. Mitch Brown must take his opportunity, and Travis Varcoe must cement himself back into the core group, getting rid of those trade rumours.
Talented 20-year old Shane Kersten will make his long-awaited debut to the excitement of many Cats fans, and speaking of long awaited, Hamish McIntosh should make his first start in the Geelong hoops this season.
The injury sustained by Nathan Vardy will mean mountainous ruckman Dawson Simpson and McIntosh should rotate. Does that leave Mark Blicavs as insurance?
Down back, what more can be said about Harry Taylor, Tom Lonergan, Andrew Mackie and the best small defender of the last decade, Corey Enright? And there’s every chance Jared Rivers will add ten years to his life after getting out of the Melbourne backline.
Only injuries threaten to derail another successful season. They’ll play a stack of night games at home, which could be A Hard Day’s Night for opponents. If a record is made about Geelong’s 2014 season, I don’t predict it’ll be called Help!
Lad-View: Fourth
Best and Fairest: Steve Johnson or Joel Selwood
Goalkicking Award: Tom Hawkins
In The Hot Seat: Travis Varcoe
Player to Watch: Shane Kersten
Most Looking Forward to Seeing: Can Joel Selwood get that elusive Brownlow?
Novelty Blog Award: Beatles references!
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
Tom Hawkins returns to familiar surroundings of Geelong - but is it the tonic he needs to regain some of his confidence back after a goalless four games.
Jeremy Finlayson should be a welcome addition to the Port Adelaide forward line after kicking four goals in the SANFL last week.
Brisbane's players will take inspiration from the stoicism of Lincoln McCarthy and Darcy Gardiner as they faced their season-ending knee injuries. The Lions confirmed…
When people say a home-and-away match is finals-like, they're usually referring, at least in part, to its quality. That was far from the case…
Last, year in the second showdown, Adelaide destroyed Port by 47 points with a staggering 20 marks inside 50 with Tex Walker the main star.
There’s no disputing that Cam Guthrie will be important against Melbourne, given Patrick Dangerfield is set to miss due to injury.
