cats_09
Otters United
- Jun 21, 2011
- 63,639
- 133,282
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Moderator
- #1
JUST WOW…We’re going back to the big dance and are in the first Grand Final to be played at the MCG this decade following our comprehensive 71-point win over Brisbane on Friday night – to put that finals win into perspective, the combined margin for the other 7 finals is just 77 points
And with a 1-point victory over Collingwood, our opponent next week will be Sydney, a team with whom we share a long history. Going back to their days as South Melbourne, our two clubs have been going head-to-head since 1987, and faced each other on 228 occasions. But what makes our 229th clash a bit more special is that for the first time in 125 years will face off in the Grand Final
Go back 12 months, and it’s likely even the staunchest Geelong supporter would have struggled to confidently predict the 2022 season we’d have – we’d been smashed by Melbourne to the tune of 83 points in the prelim final and there were significant changes ahead for the club…Brian Cook departed the club after 23 years as CEO, we farewelled 3 experienced assistance coaches and there were those questioning where the regeneration of the playing list was going to come from as majority of our veteran group was playing on
We welcomed Steve Hocking as our new CEO, while from an assistant coaching perspective, some thought we missed the boat as we didn’t get a big name, instead “settling” for James Kelly, Matthew Egan & Josh Jenkins, though Eddie Betts was a universally loved appointment – maybe that’s exactly what was needed
With the fresh faces came a new approach, the assistants were given a blank slate to work with and asked to provide their ideas rather than coming into a system they had to fit within – gone was the perceived need for line coaches, along with it the cliques of the Wolfpack & Misfits, and instead we’re seeing a more inclusive, whole team approach which has clearly paid dividends so far as we’re seeing a Club that’s enjoying itself from the players on the field to those working off of it, especially in our social media team
And while finals is rarely the time we focus on the individual, there are two milestones we should acknowledge ahead of Saturday:
- Zach Touhy becomes just the second Irish lad to run out in game #250 - 120 Carlton & 130 with in the Hoops. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of fans on Saturday screaming out for him to get on the end of a torp
- Perhaps the slightly bigger milestone belongs to the guy in the #14, when he breaks yet another record in 2022, the season in which he became the most capped captain in AFL history, the first Cat to play 350 games and on Saturday he’ll become the first player in league history to run out in their 40th finals appearance - as I read yesterday, essentially 2 additional seasons he’s played just in finals
Whether Saturday will be his 355th and final match is yet to be seen, but Joel Selwood is a legend of the Geelong Football Club: across 16 seasons he’s played in 15 finals series, 12 preliminary finals and this will be his 6th grand final
But we know neither Joel or Tuohy would want additional attention this week ahead of their milestones, and instead it’ll be about the working towards the team goal and being the ones placing the cap on the AusKick kids heads after the final siren
So, the mindset that’s worked for us over the season & especially over last 15 matches is the mindset we need to take in this week, and as both Joel & Tuohy said in the pre-match address on Friday night:
Joel: ‘This is what we talked about too. Just professional at what we do. Hey. Let’s smile out there.’
Zach: ‘Take it on. Enjoy it. Enjoy it’
Joel: ‘And what we got to do. Is we’re going to just go forward with this. LETS DO IT’
And with a 1-point victory over Collingwood, our opponent next week will be Sydney, a team with whom we share a long history. Going back to their days as South Melbourne, our two clubs have been going head-to-head since 1987, and faced each other on 228 occasions. But what makes our 229th clash a bit more special is that for the first time in 125 years will face off in the Grand Final
Go back 12 months, and it’s likely even the staunchest Geelong supporter would have struggled to confidently predict the 2022 season we’d have – we’d been smashed by Melbourne to the tune of 83 points in the prelim final and there were significant changes ahead for the club…Brian Cook departed the club after 23 years as CEO, we farewelled 3 experienced assistance coaches and there were those questioning where the regeneration of the playing list was going to come from as majority of our veteran group was playing on
We welcomed Steve Hocking as our new CEO, while from an assistant coaching perspective, some thought we missed the boat as we didn’t get a big name, instead “settling” for James Kelly, Matthew Egan & Josh Jenkins, though Eddie Betts was a universally loved appointment – maybe that’s exactly what was needed
With the fresh faces came a new approach, the assistants were given a blank slate to work with and asked to provide their ideas rather than coming into a system they had to fit within – gone was the perceived need for line coaches, along with it the cliques of the Wolfpack & Misfits, and instead we’re seeing a more inclusive, whole team approach which has clearly paid dividends so far as we’re seeing a Club that’s enjoying itself from the players on the field to those working off of it, especially in our social media team
And while finals is rarely the time we focus on the individual, there are two milestones we should acknowledge ahead of Saturday:
- Zach Touhy becomes just the second Irish lad to run out in game #250 - 120 Carlton & 130 with in the Hoops. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of fans on Saturday screaming out for him to get on the end of a torp
- Perhaps the slightly bigger milestone belongs to the guy in the #14, when he breaks yet another record in 2022, the season in which he became the most capped captain in AFL history, the first Cat to play 350 games and on Saturday he’ll become the first player in league history to run out in their 40th finals appearance - as I read yesterday, essentially 2 additional seasons he’s played just in finals
Whether Saturday will be his 355th and final match is yet to be seen, but Joel Selwood is a legend of the Geelong Football Club: across 16 seasons he’s played in 15 finals series, 12 preliminary finals and this will be his 6th grand final
But we know neither Joel or Tuohy would want additional attention this week ahead of their milestones, and instead it’ll be about the working towards the team goal and being the ones placing the cap on the AusKick kids heads after the final siren
So, the mindset that’s worked for us over the season & especially over last 15 matches is the mindset we need to take in this week, and as both Joel & Tuohy said in the pre-match address on Friday night:
Joel: ‘This is what we talked about too. Just professional at what we do. Hey. Let’s smile out there.’
Zach: ‘Take it on. Enjoy it. Enjoy it’
Joel: ‘And what we got to do. Is we’re going to just go forward with this. LETS DO IT’
