Geelong’s long-term success has been truly remarkable, with 2014 marking their eighth consecutive year in finals. And there is no reason to expect anything different in 2015.
Geelong are on average the third-oldest team in the competition, but due to their incredible finals run, one could argue they are the most experienced.
This came to the fore in 2014 with tight wins over Richmond (Round 7), Carlton (Rounds 12 and 21), Essendon (Round 15) and Greater Western Sydney (Round 18) pivotal to ensuring a top-four finish.
It was simply Geelong’s experience that won games where other teams would have lost them. Even below their best, Geelong’s experience shone through as they willed their way to the four points, despite been seriously challenged. In 2015 this will no doubt again be a key feature once more.
Rhys Stanley and the potentially match-winning Mitch Clark give Geelong’s forward line a facelift. Nakia Cockatoo is also addded to a young brigade, which includes Jake Kolodjashnij and Darcy Lang, who have the future on their shoulders.
Despite their wealth of experience and young players, the Cats have surprisingly few players aged between 23 and 28 (11 in total) compared with fellow top-four prospects around them Hawthorn (19), Port Adelaide (18) and Sydney (14).
This effectively means that Geelong have fewer players in or approaching their prime compared to other clubs. Given that their average age is still very high, the Cat’s age comes from a lot of older players and lots of very young players as opposed to a group of players around their prime.
As the long list of older players retire, Geelong may be left stuck with a large cluster of inexperience in years to come. It is time for some of those experienced players to do what is best for the club and vacate their spots so that the young talent the Cats do have can develop.
Following the shock straight-sets exit from the 2014 finals series, Brad Scott has admitted that simple football fundamentals such as team defence have not been implemented as they would be by the top teams and that they are now behind the eight ball. It is now up to the experienced players to lead the team through this and set the younger players up for the future.
They also need to help oversee their own transition out of the team, picking the right time to leave and welcome the new era.
Experience can do a lot of things for a team. It can drag the team through matches when below its best and guide a team through tough times. Experience will make a team good, but without the future of youth constantly at their feet, experience alone cannot make a team truly great.
For the best chance at greatness, Geelong must find the balance between youth and experience for 2015 and beyond.
Having said all that, if we have learnt one thing from the Cats, it’s to ever write them off.
Prediction: Sixth.
Dean
Guest
The deliberately bottoming out trick hasn't worked wll too many times. Melbourne, Richmond and Carlton have barely recovered from it. Hawthorn and St Kilda benefited from high draft picks, but they didn't deliberately bottom out like those other clubs, they didn't completely destroy their culture.
Don Freo
Guest
Yeah...I thought Tommo Willo might be the regeneration of Gene...until then.
jax
Guest
Would the Cats have been better placed for the medium to long term if they had bottomed out for a few years and taken some earlier draft picks rather than making up the numbers I'm the eight for the last few years? I don't know the answer to that but I'm keen to hear what others think.
TomC
Roar Guru
Write them off.
pete
Guest
Don't know about other games but the umpires won the 2 carlton games for them not the experience of the team.
Dean
Guest
Too much numbers, not enough in-depth analysis of the actual list. The team is structured around Harry Taylor, Joel Selwood and Tom Hawkins. The three of those are in the 23-28 yr old age bracket. Other clubs may have more numbers in that group, but not many have players of that calibre. The midfield has Duncan and Motlop in that age group too. The cats have traded out Varcoe, Mumford and West who would all have been in this group as well as Christensen, but those were concious decisions by the club. I think Geelong are very well placed for the next 3 years, with midfielders like Horlin-Smith and Caddy to replace Johnson and Bartel (not as good now, but Johnson was almost traded away at GHS's age). The core of the team is very strong, adding guys like Stanley and Clark means that they're starting to add to the peripherals that are required to win premierships. I think the Hawks will be too strong again this year, but I would be surprised to see the Cats slip below 2nd-5th. And in the next three years, the Cats will make up ground on the Hawks. I think Mitchell and Hodge are harder to replace than Johnson and Bartel who between them have had a lot lower output in key games than the premiership seasons. They do need to gel better, but that can change in a pre-season, not over several seasons.
pickles278
Guest
"Brad Scott has admitted"- Chris Scott maybe?