Geelong - never going out of premiership contention?

[VineyToClark]

Big call I know - but I can't see Geelong ever going out of premiership contention.

They just know how to get it done year in, year out - and the culture of success is passed down to the new players and staff who come to the club.

Do you agree with this notion - or do you think they'll go out of premiership contention eventually?

 

[mike123]

They’ve been in premiership contention?

 

[PhatBoy]

They’ve been in premiership contention?

That depends on your definition. I’d say making two prelim finals in three years is close to it.

 

[PhatBoy]

Big call I know - but I can't see Geelong ever going out of premiership contention.

They just know how to get it done year in, year out - and the culture of success is passed down to the new players and staff who come to the club.

Do you agree with this notion - or do you think they'll go out of premiership contention eventually?

There’s a difference between contending and competing but I get the gist, I think in 30 years we’ve never gone more than 3 seasons without making the finals and we’ve never finished lower than 12th. The run is getting bloody long now - if we go on and play finals this year it will make it 14 campaigns in 16 years which is a massive achievement (and there’s still one player on the list who was there when that run started) and I think it’s fair to say the culture there breeds a bit of success but who knows, we could see danger, Hawkins, Selwood all move on in the space of a few years and the guys behind them don’t develop as well as they should and we fall apart.

 

[Substance]

They usually get belted in finals since 2011.

 

[The Unforgiven]

Big call I know - but I can't see Geelong ever going out of premiership contention.

They just know how to get it done year in, year out - and the culture of success is passed down to the new players and staff who come to the club.

Do you agree with this notion - or do you think they'll go out of premiership contention eventually?

We've been amazingly consistent over a long period of time, but I can't see that remaining the status quo forever. We'll have some down years eventually, but it doesn't look like it will happen any time soon.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Very much like Hawthorn have done they recruit footballers ready to play, they don’t spend their lives in development which you shouldn’t be at AFL level.

 

[Blue1980]

Big call I know - but I can't see Geelong ever going out of premiership contention.

They just know how to get it done year in, year out - and the culture of success is passed down to the new players and staff who come to the club.

Do you agree with this notion - or do you think they'll go out of premiership contention eventually?

Literally ever? Like now until the end of days?

They will go out of contention at some stage, nothing lasts forever. I can’t predict when, but they could have a 1995 like Carlton season where all their guns click together one final time.

Also to continue the parallel, Abletts new role is comparable to how we had Diesel playing more as a forward and less the main man in 95

 

[Topkent]

They play a game style that suits their significant home ground advantage in modern footy. Even a s**t Geelong can beat interstates sides at KP.

Other Victorian sides don't have that, so when we are s**t we are s**t.

 

[PhatBoy]

They play a game style that suits their significant home ground advantage in modern footy. Even a s**t Geelong can beat interstates sides at KP.

Other Victorian sides don't have that, so when we are s**t we are s**t.

That can’t be proven though until we actually are s**t, which hasn’t happened for over a decade.

 

[Blue1980]

They play a game style that suits their significant home ground advantage in modern footy. Even a s**t Geelong can beat interstates sides at KP.

Other Victorian sides don't have that, so when we are s**t we are s**t.

An actual s**t geelong would struggle anywhere.

Point is they haven’t been close to s**t since 2003 or so. Since then they have been at least average at worst, missing finals only twice.

 

[FISTO]

I am okay with this

 

[The Final Word]

Big call I know - but I can't see Geelong ever going out of premiership contention.

They just know how to get it done year in, year out - and the culture of success is passed down to the new players and staff who come to the club.

Do you agree with this notion - or do you think they'll go out of premiership contention eventually?

Usually 20min into a knockout final will see us out of contention

 

[Man0gwaR74]

They’ve been in premiership contention?

I would have thought that Collingwood were in contention and they beat them so got a clue now?

 

[blitzer]

Fair to say Geelong have done a lot right. I'd say they'll be thereabouts for the next few years at least and will probably make finals most years for the forseeable future. Obviously at some point things will come undone. Probably around the stage where Ablett, Hawkins and Selwood are gone and Dangerfield is slowing down but its possible they may reinvent themselves by then.

The real strength of a great culture is being able to bring players in when you lose some of your best because players simply want to play for your club.

 

[justlookingaround]

Given my age I’ve really only been following footy closely since Geelong’s era of dominance, but it seems they’ve made a lot of right choices in that time. The expansion of Kardinia Park has been important. They are also aided by snatching back Geelong Falcons alumni in their prime and there probably isn’t as many outside distractions like nightlife in Geelong as there is for most other teams, hanging around the footy club is probably the most fun to be had out there.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Haven't been in real contention since 2011. If you can't win finals, you're not much of a contender.

Also, we'll see how things are going when Taylor, Selwood, Dangerfield, Kelly, Hawkins and Ablett are gone, which will be fairly soon. We were able to hold off against a rapid descent down the ladder as a result of lost champions by somewhat offsetting those losses with a pre-existing core group of players (i.e. Taylor, Hawkins, Selwood, Duncan) and by bringing in established stars and mature-age recruits who could contribute right away (Dangerfield, Ablett, Menegola, Stewart, Kelly). It is unlikely that we will have a star player of the caliber of Dangerfield asking to come to us anytime soon, and a mature-age player the quality of Kelly drifting to us again any time soon is also fairly unlikely. Meanwhile, we have no one to fill the role of Hawkins and the midfield will look fairly barren in a few years unless guys like Parfitt, Constable and other young players really come along.

And again, we must be cautious in making any assessment of Geelong under Scott based on H&A form. They may finish 1st, 4th or 8th this year. They could win 20+ games and beat every other finalist during the season. But it would surprise few who have been keeping track if Geelong then proceeded to s**t its pants in the first final and keel over limply, leading Geelong supporters to proclaim that they weren't really all that good during the season, lucky to make finals, etc.

 

[SA HAWK]

A lock for top 4 with the start they have had.

 

[Topkent]

An actual s**t geelong would struggle anywhere.

Point is they haven’t been close to s**t since 2003 or so. Since then they have been at least average at worst, missing finals only twice.

But they don't become an actual s**t team. They constantly bring in players from trades that always make them competitive an they don't trade away their senior players just to get draft picks.

An average Geelong side still challenges for the 8 with their home ground advantage.

 

[Topkent]

A lock for top 4 with the start they have had.

Nah. Why does everyone feel the need to try an make long term predictions off little evidence?
They certainly look impressive an I wouldn't bet against them making the top 4 now but they are far from a lock.

 

[NetworkNerd]

Any side would always be in premiership contention when starting the season with 36 premiership points before a ball is bounced. Credit to them for being close to untouchable at home

 

[Fadge]

Nothing but respect for the way Geelong have gone about it for the past 30 odd years.

In contention as often as they aren't and have produced some amazing talent.

You'd be hard pressed picking a team if their last 30 years, would give most teams of the century a run for their money...

 

[Wojcinski]

I can't say I'm unhappy with our start, and our off-season was great in my eyes. Rohan and Dahlhause are decent pickups but I was most impressed with the fact that we cut ties with a number of average plodders that we're clogging our bottom 6 - Thurlow, Murdoch, Horlin-Smith and moving on talented but extremely injury prone players like Menzel and McCarthy. This has opened up spots for guys like Miers, Constable, Atkins and Clark who have all been valuable contributors so far which in my eyes, paints a brighter picture of the future.

 

[doppleganger]

Very much like Hawthorn have done they recruit footballers ready to play, they don’t spend their lives in development which you shouldn’t be at AFL level.

This.
Geelong isn’t a team obsessed with getting top 5 picks to ‘rebuild’.

Instead they trade to fill areas of weakness, Dahlhaus and Rohan, and they continue to introduce a few new players each year.

Whilst Geelong keep winning, clubs who think the draft is the answer battle along in the bottom half of the ladder, and fans post threads about how good their u22 team is and that in two or three years they will be amazing.

 

[The Final Word]

Given my age I’ve really only been following footy closely since Geelong’s era of dominance, but it seems they’ve made a lot of right choices in that time. The expansion of Kardinia Park has been important. They are also aided by snatching back Geelong Falcons alumni in their prime and there probably isn’t as many outside distractions like nightlife in Geelong as there is for most other teams, hanging around the footy club is probably the most fun to be had out there.

Steve Johnson managed to find plenty of distractions in his day.