Opinion Why is no one discussing Geelong?

[Aristotle Pickett]

Oh btw, have you enquired potentially about your 2028 compensation package application?? Never too early to get onto things!! Especially now with Taranto and hopper hovering you slightly higher than you should for a few years depriving you even further of elite talent.

How on earth did you fall 12 places with such a great young team?

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

De Koning has shown more though - 22 under 22 side and top 10 in a premiership side's best and fairest in 2022.

De Koning is a talent I agree.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Pleasant 70 minute drive down the freeway or train trip on the V line from Melbourne. I like the Esplanade area, nice botanic gardens, some nice places to eat, drink etc, close to the GOR, Otways, Bellarine etc. Not a bad spot, really...except their footy team they can eat ass, and alphabet stadium is a horrible place for a non Cats fan to watch lol.

It’s definitely becoming more appealing since the massive migration boom in Australia causing flooding of Melbourne and Sydney populations and booming home prices.

Geelong is more affordable and has grown to the point it offers a nice lifestyle. 30 years ago you couldn’t even convince a stray cat to go down there. The swings and flows of demographic trends.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

I get what you're saying but the issue of drawing the line so low is you're actually looking at quite a low amount of players and the degree of speculation goes up. 25 gives you two categories: the baby lambs (18-21) and the ones with a good amount of time in the system (22-25) who will probably be the core over the next 5 years. It just rounds it out a bit better - too much guesswork otherwise. But each to their own.

I just call that 23-25 yo bracket mature aged players coming into their prime with 5-7 years of footy left. Youth always does have a speculative aspect to it. I don’t think that’s avoidable

 

[geelong_crazy26]

How on earth did you fall 12 places with such a great young team?

20 and 21 yo’s leading our midfield brigade aren’t going to win flags. Did enough to hold us in finals contention until the last few rounds

 

[geelong_crazy26]

De Koning is a talent I agree.

Struggled this year with a nasty nasal bone fracture. I’m light on kids with injury issues and history as it’s tough enough at that age getting a spot

 

[Mr Meow]

geelong_crazy26

23 and under - best 18

Geelong

Holmes
O.Henry
Bruhn
De Koning
Mullin
Knevitt
Mullin
Dempsey
Neale
Conway
Clark
Clohesy
Murdoch
Kroeger
Willis
Foster
Fabulous Pick 7 2023 - O'Sullivan/Caddy?
Ratugolea comp 2023 - pick 22?

Richmond

Balta
Gibcus
Ryan
Cumberland
Ross
Dow
Ralphsmith
Bauer
Coulthard
Sonsie
M.Rioli
Smith
Brown
Banks
Clarke
Trezise
Green
Pick 27 2023

 

[geelong_crazy26]

geelong_crazy26

23 and under - best 18

Geelong

Holmes
O.Henry
Bruhn
De Koning
Mullin
Knevitt
Mullin
Dempsey
Neale
Conway
Clark
Clohesy
Murdoch
Kroeger
Willis
Foster
Fabulous Pick 7 2023 - O'Sullivan/Caddy?
Ratugolea comp 2023 - pick 22?

Richmond

Balta
Gibcus
Ryan
Cumberland
Ross
Dow
Ralphsmith
Bauer
Coulthard
Sonsie
M.Rioli
Smith
Brown
Banks
Clarke
Trezise
Green
Pick 27 2023

Good effort doing the list. Cheers meow

Puts into perspective for me that we aren’t too bad… probably 2-3 A graders off a good young list capable of pushing up the ladder.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

geelong_crazy26

23 and under - best 18

Geelong

Holmes (a)
O.Henry (a)
Bruhn (b-a)
De Koning (a)
Mullin (unknown)
Knevitt (b)
Mullin
Dempsey (b)
Neale (c-b)
Conway (a)
Clark (b-a)
Clohesy (c-b)
Murdoch (c)
Kroeger (c)
Willis (c)
Foster (d)
Fabulous Pick 7 2023 - O'Sullivan/Caddy?
Ratugolea comp 2023 - pick 22?

Richmond

Balta
Gibcus
Ryan
Cumberland
Ross
Dow
Ralphsmith
Bauer
Coulthard
Sonsie
M.Rioli
Smith
Brown
Banks
Clarke
Trezise
Green
Pick 27 2023

Placed my future crystal ball ranking next to them which has some bias. I do think bruhn Henry and holmes will be A graders. How good in that bracket I assume probably AA squad discussions to potentially a spot in their best year or two. Not expecting brownlow level quality. Henry probably the more prominent AA feature given I am confident he will be a 50-70 goal medium forward in his prime. Conway I think is the next big ruck thing… watch out AFL. Dekoning will be a rock down back and get AA’s for it along the way

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Not bad, jhye Clark is rated a gem internally and would have played probably 8-12 games if not for injury. Came on for a quarter and was probably BOG for his very short stint before injury hit again. Big name to watch for in 2024.

Geez you talk some garbage. Hardly any of those names you mentioned have established themselves at AFL level. Anybody can claim they have great youth it's actually going out there and proving it that matters. I'll give you SDK, Holmes and Miers but everybody else has done nothing. Jhye Clark has played 1 match FFS. I get you blokes are used to success but a bit of rational thinking wouldn't go astray from time to time not biased dribble.

 

[Demon in Hell]

When your senior players are playing well your junior players tend to come along for the ride, as happened in 2022.

When your senior players dry up, become slow and get burnt out your junior players tend to show their true colours on how s**t they really are, as happened in 2023.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Geez you talk some garbage. Hardly any of those names you mentioned have established themselves at AFL level. Anybody can claim they have great youth it's actually going out there and proving it that matters. I'll give you SDK, Holmes and Miers but everybody else has done nothing. Jhye Clark has played 1 match FFS. I get you blokes are used to success but a bit of rational thinking wouldn't go astray from time to time not biased dribble.

Considering you just omitted a 20 year old forward who kicked 40 goals, I’d say you’re the one talking garbage and have absolutely no clue what you are on about.. also tanner bruhn has done alright.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Considering you just omitted a 20 year old forward who kicked 40 goals, I’d say you’re the one talking garbage and have absolutely no clue what you are on about.. also tanner bruhn has done alright.

Henry your refering to. So sorry for innocently omitting 1 more young player. That gives you 4 proven players to this point. Could reel off 4 just in our midfield alone. 1 just won our B&F. Hold fire on your superstar youth till a fair portion of them produce decent quality on the field over a period of time.

 

[STPer18]

Henry your refering to. So sorry for innocently omitting 1 more young player. That gives you 4 proven players to this point. Could reel off 4 just in our midfield alone. 1 just won our B&F. Hold fire on your superstar youth till a fair portion of them produce decent quality on the field over a period of time.

You also finished 16th ahead of two historically awful teams and haven't won a single final since 2015, whereas we won a premiership last year. You guys should be comparing yourselves to the North's of the competition.

 

[PhatBoy]

De Koning is a talent I agree.

So is Ollie Henry. It’s bizarre how under valued his season was, playing as a third wheel behind two superstar forwards and kicking 40-odd goals in his second year.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

You also finished 16th ahead of two historically awful teams and haven't won a single final since 2015, whereas we won a premiership last year. You guys should be comparing yourselves to the North's of the competition.

Well no we don't ask for handouts every year for a start. Were good at developing talent just that it took to long for the penny to drop and set us back years. We were supposed to barely win a game this year from memory so I would suggest were on the right track. You won a flag last year but who's to say you will get close to that again for a while. Attracting FA's like Cameron and Izzy Smith helped your cause. You don't get that flag without them.

 

[Mr Meow]

Geez you talk some garbage. Hardly any of those names you mentioned have established themselves at AFL level. Anybody can claim they have great youth it's actually going out there and proving it that matters. I'll give you SDK, Holmes and Miers but everybody else has done nothing. Jhye Clark has played 1 match FFS. I get you blokes are used to success but a bit of rational thinking wouldn't go astray from time to time not biased dribble.

It's true that our 18-20 year olds have lacked AFL exposure for obvious reasons. There's still plenty in the bracket above them that are going to play for another 7-10 years. The three you mentioned to start with.

Close and Stengle are small forwards going at 2 combined goal/assists per game, these players don't grow on trees (basically Jamie Elliot's career average). O.Henry and Bruhn have shown that they are going to be very good players. J.Henry and Z.Guthrie are still young and have some very good BnF showings in the bank now.

There's 9, while we're about to finally see how the talls (Neale/Conway), some livewires (Dempsey, Mullin) and the top 10 draft picks (Clark and number 8 this year) go. It's never going to be as mouth watering as clubs that have been mopping up top 10 draft picks for 5 plus years, but with FA additions it'll probably turn into something competitive. Our under 25s, for the record, looked much worse 2015-2019.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

It's true that our 18-20 year olds have lacked AFL exposure for obvious reasons. There's still plenty in the bracket above them that are going to play for another 7-10 years. The three you mentioned to start with.

Close and Stengle are small forwards going at 2 combined goal/assists per game, these players don't grow on trees (basically Jamie Elliot's career average). O.Henry and Bruhn have shown that they are going to be very good players. J.Henry and Z.Guthrie are still young and have some very good BnF showings in the bank now.

There's 9, while we're about to finally see how the talls (Neale/Conway), some livewires (Dempsey, Mullin) and the top 10 draft picks (Clark and number 8 this year) go. It's never going to be as mouth watering as clubs that have been mopping up top 10 draft picks for 5 plus years, but with FA additions it'll probably turn into something competitive. Our under 25s, for the record, looked much worse 2015-2019.

Close and Stengle have benefitted from being at the feet of Hawkins/Cameron. Helps a fair bit. Paul Puopolo is in the same bracket when it came to Franklin/Roughead. There solid players no doubt. The test will come once Hawkins isn't there permanently.

 

[Mr Meow]

Close and Stengle have benefitted from being at the feet of Hawkins/Cameron. Helps a fair bit. Paul Puopolo is in the same bracket when it came to Franklin/Roughead. There solid players no doubt. The test will come once Hawkins isn't there permanently.

Yep fair enough. We need Neale to become a Mitch Lewis. From what we've seen Conway will grow into a solid ruckman. We probably need one more quality tall, midfielder and rebounding defender to have our next nucleus (to go with the 26 and unders). I think we'll go hard for Smith next year. The pain has to arrive at some point but we have been saying this for a while.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Yep fair enough. We need Neale to become a Mitch Lewis. From what we've seen Conway will grow into a solid ruckman. We probably need one more quality tall, midfielder and rebounding defender to have our next nucleus (to go with the 26 and unders). I think we'll go hard for Smith next year. The pain has to arrive at some point but we have been saying this for a while.

You might be too late on Smith but that's for another board. Lewis needs to stay on the park if we're going to take the next step. He's been around a while now but can't string consistent matches together across a season. Probably why we're getting Chol in case he keeps breaking down but that's also for another board.

 

[Mr Meow]

You might be too late on Smith but that's for another board. Lewis needs to stay on the park if we're going to take the next step. He's been around a while now but can't string consistent matches together across a season. Probably why we're getting Chol in case he keeps breaking down but that's also for another board.

My point is we are always active when good players are available. Next year is when our cap space opens up. What's left on the table this off season isn't really of interest.

Lewis has genuine gun capacity, I could see him matching Roughead output. But ideally you have at least a solid second tall and develop a new fleet of smalls to buzz around them. I'm pretty bullish on Hawthorn returning to finals soon.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Henry your refering to. So sorry for innocently omitting 1 more young player. That gives you 4 proven players to this point. Could reel off 4 just in our midfield alone. 1 just won our B&F. Hold fire on your superstar youth till a fair portion of them produce decent quality on the field over a period of time.

point is, you are clueless yet trying to make comments... and you also left out bruhn who was holding down a RR spot at 20yo. stick to what you know. also we just won a flag, you guys have been s**t cellar dwellers for long enough that it would be concerning if you didn't have a few decent kids. No where near enough to show you have a future flag group tho.

 

[Freomaniac]

That can happen when you win 3 flags. It will be hard for us without good draft picks. We cant scam them like Geelong do.

you will me fine. just need early picks like you had in 2007-09. Nailing those early picks will be a bonus.

Dont know if asking for priority picks or help from the AFL like North Melbourne has done doesnt mean success is certain.

 

[powerrrrrrrrrrrr]

Will be bottom 4 within the next 2 years. Tough years ahead I expect.

 

[rapidfire7]

Will be bottom 4 within the next 2 years. Tough years ahead I expect.

Tough years for Geelong are more like finishing 10th-12th, not 15-18.

As many would know, the Cats have never finished below 12th in their history, and with one of the most successful coaches of all time (in terms of wins) still at the helm, and some very promising youngsters like Holmes, O Henry, SDK, Bruhn, Clarke etc., all bias aside, it's hard to see that changing any time soon.