Preview 2023 Pre-Season discussion

[dazbroncos]

Back after preseason break & Matty Egan gives us a player development update with the Cameron Ling Academy covering the 1 to 4 year players.

Directly below are Matty Egan's comments regards Ollie Dempsey, Mitch Knevitt & Shannon Neale..... BOLDED RED are my liked comments

OLLIE DEMPSEY: He’s come back in really good shape & one of our probably top 5 runners at the moment, so he’s worked really hard on his running ability over the break. He’s played most of his footy half forward but we’re trying to put him up on the wing a little bit more & let him use his weapon which is getting right up the ground & trying to beat his opponent both ways, he’s 'really good aerial player', so if you watched a few of the sessions lately, he’s taken some really good marks (apparently out-marking Tom Stewart as well), 'using his agility, flashiness & flair' which has been great for him. So he’s developing his body, I think he’s put on 6 kilos in one year.

MITCH KNEVITT: Very similar to Ollie, he played every game pretty much in VFL (with one game in AFL), 'we’ve got to drag him off the track all the time. He’s always looking to do extras, really diligent worker'. Similar to Ollie has played in a couple of positions, so we started off more inside but now he’s progressing cause he’s such a good runner & he’s improved over the pre-season. He’s getting some wing exposure as well & in second half of year played a fair bit on the wing as well. He’s another player getting some good opportunities at the moment, he’s running, he’s going really well again, like Ollie, he’s probably in our top five runners at moment, so it’s progressing really well.

SHANNON NEALE: Yeah, big Scratch’s got a great opportunity at the moment with Tom Hawkins just working through his rehab. You know he’s getting some experience with Jeremy Cameron & Gary Rohan & the bigger guys down there at being the main target along with our big fellas. He came back from pre-season in ripping shape & is into his third year now he’s sort of free to go as he’s getting a lot of training in, 'he’s an amazing athlete' with real ability to play tall & has developed 'so he’s strong enough to play on anyone' but he can also get right up the ground & play sort of a hybrid tall as well. It’s an exciting place he’s in, his marking looking really strong & he dominated some games of VFL this year, so he’d be looking to progress as best he can this year & he’s in a really good place at the moment.


So much to be enthused about Cats in 2023 & beyond –

Been huge fan of Ollie Dempsey & Shannon Neale for some time, so Matty Eagan’s above comments are most encouraging & with the likes of Mitch Knevitt, Tanner Bruhn, Ollie Henry, Jhye Clark, Oscar Murdoch, Jack Bowes, Toby Conway, Cooper Whyte, James Willis, Flynn Kroeger & Irishman Oisin Mullen all promising youngsters being brought into the club in recent times along with Sam Menegola, Sam Simpson, Sav Ratugolea & Jonathon Cegla as genuine mature aged back-ups, the Cats future is looking very promising to say the very least from 2023 & beyond.

PS - Given that Tomahawk may miss early games (1 to 4 or 5) & judging by Matty Egan's comments in above interview, Shannon Neale is likely to have first crack at taking-up Tomahawks position which 'excites me' no end. GO CATTERS !!!


View attachment 1587078

Firm… very firm…

Go Catters

 

[dazbroncos]

Scratcher Neale. Love it!

I posted here a while ago that SDK's dad says the Club is VERY hot on Neale.

Been banging on about him for a while myself.. a long while..: and it’s getting louder
Still very early days however.. long way to go..

Go Catters

 

[Shadow89]

unless the cats make sav into an intercept defender like lever or someone. they also have to realize that stewart never plays 22 games a season and will have to think about their future. his skills arent there yet by foot unfortunately

Defended your first post mate on the basis of it being an anomaly, but this one...oof this is so bad. Not dispelling any 'alt account' vibes by referring to 'the Cats' (when this is our board), either.

Let me get this straight...you want to replace Stewart if he goes down with...Sav? No mention of perhaps SDK and him sharing the load, or even rotating with Kolo (sorry I forgot Murdoch will be replacing him) and J. Henry? Nope let's go straight with replacing the elite foot skills, intercept marking, speed and decision making of Stewart with...Ratugolea?

Let's also then infer that Stewart never plays 22 games a season - when he's been both suspended and had a serious impact foot injury and issue with his collarbone (impact injury again) in 2 separate seasons, and played basically every other game since inception (he's missed 10 games due to injury in his short career over the first 6 seasons of his career, out of a possible 126 he's played thus far). Let's break this down even further shall we?

2017 was his first year after being drafted, and he played 21 of 25, but was dropped at one point, so not injury related - so played 21 of 21 games eligible
2018 was his second year, and he played 22 out of 23 games (missed 1 week due to twisted ankle thought to be syndesmosis, but returned the next week)
2019 was his 3rd year, and he played 25 out of 25 games and was AA again
2020 was his 4th year, played 18 out of 21 games and missed Rounds 5 to 7 with a suspected broken collarbone. Returned in Round 8 and played out season
2021 was his 5th year, played 20 of 25 games, AA, and played 20 of 20 games up until Round 21, then did his lisfranc at training - missed the rest of season
2022 was his 6th year, played 20 out of a possible 25 games, but suspended for 4, so only missed 1 game due to gastro - AA for the 4th time

************************************

So in his short career, he's missed only 10 games due to injury, where 7 weeks were due to a suspected broken collarbone and a lisfranc injury - both serious impact injuries (one from contact and the other from landing innocuously but badly). Twisted ankle saw him miss another week, and gastro the other. 4 incidents, 3 that have nothing to do with durability - so then one twisted ankle and no soft tissue injuries.

I'd say that is pretty damn durable wouldn't you? Even if hypothetically he wasn't though, don't you think we'd be replacing him with someone far more similar, like an O'Connor or even giving Ollie Henry a run down back and shifting roles for attack/rebound to someone like Tuohy, Zuthrie, Duncan etc. Ratugolea is a KPP, and could never replace a 4 time AA who is considered, if not the best, then among the Top 3 defenders in the comp. You want to replace him with someone who couldn't make it in their former position, can barely kick and doesn't always have the most 'sticky' hands when marking, and has played all of 1 game in defence at AFL level? There's been some bad calls on here, but gee whiz, that is an all time howler. Very hard to treat anything you say moving forward seriously, if that's the kind of out there stuff you're going to be posting. Probably don't refer to what is 'apparently' your own team as 'the Cats', either.

**************************************

FredLeDeux apologies, you had this one spot on from the get go, while I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[STPer18]

He’s an interesting one Knevitt. High-ish pick, tall, quick, appears to have a good head on his shoulders and doesn't lack talent....for some reason most around here seemed to give up on him almost immediately.

He was always going to take a bit of time to fill out given his rangy frame, but he seems the kind of player the coaches would love if he manages to kick on. If I remember right he always played either inside mid or as a third forward, but he's got elite endurance and is fairly quick, and at 193cm he'd be an ideal tall wingman. Considering this was only his first year in the system and they've already got him learning a brand new role, he's definitely one who's got time on his side.

 

[Harry Taylor 7]

He’s an interesting one Knevitt. High-ish pick, tall, quick, appears to have a good head on his shoulders and doesn't lack talent....for some reason most around here seemed to give up on him almost immediately.

perhaps due to his vfl numbers some were questioning him. have to remember that he was a first year player etc


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[Jhye Clark 13]

He’s an interesting one Knevitt. High-ish pick, tall, quick, appears to have a good head on his shoulders and doesn't lack talent....for some reason most around here seemed to give up on him almost immediately.

I'm slowly learning not to give up on players but I see nothing with Knevitt that screams AFL player.

Let's hope he proves me wrong.

 

[Harry Taylor 7]

Defended your first post mate on the basis of it being an anomaly, but this one...oof this is so bad. Not dispelling any 'alt account' vibes by referring to 'the Cats' (when this is our board), either.

Let me get this straight...you want to replace Stewart if he goes down with...Sav? No mention of perhaps SDK and him sharing the load, or even rotating with Kolo (sorry I forgot Murdoch will be replacing him) and J. Henry? Nope let's go straight with replacing the elite foot skills, intercept marking, speed and decision making of Stewart with...Ratugolea?

Let's also then infer that Stewart never plays 22 games a season - when he's been both suspended and had a serious impact foot injury and issue with his collarbone (impact injury again) in 2 separate seasons, and played basically every other game since inception (he's missed 10 games due to injury in his short career over the first 6 seasons of his career, out of a possible 126 he's played thus far). Let's break this down even further shall we?

2017 was his first year after being drafted, and he played 21 of 25, but was dropped at one point, so not injury related - so played 21 of 21 games eligible
2018 was his second year, and he played 22 out of 23 games (missed 1 week due to twisted ankle thought to be syndesmosis, but returned the next week)
2019 was his 3rd year, and he played 25 out of 25 games and was AA again
2020 was his 4th year, played 18 out of 21 games and missed Rounds 5 to 7 with a suspected broken collarbone. Returned in Round 8 and played out season
2021 was his 5th year, played 20 of 25 games, AA, and played 20 of 20 games up until Round 21, then did his lisfranc at training - missed the rest of season
2022 was his 6th year, played 20 out of a possible 25 games, but suspended for 4, so only missed 1 game due to gastro - AA for the 4th time

************************************

So in his short career, he's missed only 10 games due to injury, where 7 weeks were due to a suspected broken collarbone and a lisfranc injury - both serious impact injuries (one from contact and the other from landing innocuously but badly). Twisted ankle saw him miss another week, and gastro the other. 4 incidents, 3 that have nothing to do with durability - so then one twisted ankle and no soft tissue injuries.

I'd say that is pretty damn durable wouldn't you? Even if hypothetically he wasn't though, don't you think we'd be replacing him with someone far more similar, like an O'Connor or even giving Ollie Henry a run down back and shifting roles for attack/rebound to someone like Tuohy, Zuthrie, Duncan etc. Ratugolea is a KPP, and could not never replace a 4 time AA who is considered, if not the best, then among the Top 3 defenders in the comp. You want to replace him with someone who couldn't make it in their former position, can barely kick and doesn't always have the most 'sticky' hands when marking, and has played all of 1 game in defence at AFL level? There's been some bad calls on here, but gee whiz, that is an all time howler. Very hard to treat anything you say moving forward seriously, if that's the kind of out there stuff you're going to be posting. Probably don't refer to what is 'apparently' your own team as 'the Cats', either.

**************************************

FredLeDeux apologies, you had this one spot on from the get go, while I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

thanks for defending my first post i appreciate that. in regards to sav replacing stewart, i said that sav does not have the foot skills to match stewart and alluded to the idea that savs overhead and intercept marking would not be enough to fully replace him. it was merely an idea put forward as stewarts time is beginning to come to an end. of course there is no denying that sdk and others share the load when stewart is gone, even duncan helped out.

agreed with the second statement ill not be prideful in admitting i was wrong.

oconnor im not the greatest fan but i can see the logic behind it. again this is under the idea that sav is best 22, sort of his last roll of the dice with geelong so i was thinking outside of the box.

I also dont see the issue with referring to them as the cats or as geelong. do you specifically want people to mention coaches by name?


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[Farmer2Goggin]

I'm slowly learning not to give up on players but I see nothing with Knevitt that screams AFL player.

Let's hope he proves me wrong.

I'm with you on that one Jack The Godfather - based on my limited viewing of him he seemed to lack desire and intensity.
However he's young with an under developed body so maybe another year and the extra work he's doing will turn things around.
There's a lot of competition for mid spots so maybe that will spur him on as well.

 

[Warhorse]

I'm slowly learning not to give up on players but I see nothing with Knevitt that screams AFL player.

Let's hope he proves me wrong.

For a so called good athlete he sure looks slow. Has time though

 

[Drunkcat]

Good pick up. I have high hopes for Mitch. I think he might take a little while to reach full potential but he is a good runner, tall and I very determined.

I liked Dempsey and Knevitt but both are a few years away from their best, and we have time for them so all good

 

[CatToTheFuture]

thanks for defending my first post i appreciate that. in regards to sav replacing stewart, i said that sav does not have the foot skills to match stewart and alluded to the idea that savs overhead and intercept marking would not be enough to fully replace him. it was merely an idea put forward as stewarts time is beginning to come to an end. of course there is no denying that sdk and others share the load when stewart is gone, even duncan helped out.

agreed with the second statement ill not be prideful in admitting i was wrong.

oconnor im not the greatest fan but i can see the logic behind it. again this is under the idea that sav is best 22, sort of his last roll of the dice with geelong so i was thinking outside of the box.

I also dont see the issue with referring to them as the cats or as geelong. do you specifically want people to mention coaches by name?


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Stewart is 29 and plays half back. 3 or 4 rounds of draftees will see their careers both start and finish before he's done

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

based on my limited viewing of him he seemed to lack desire and intensity.

That's my concern too.

 

[Drunkcat]

I will say that early, before his debut, I saw him play for the first time in a vfl game on the wing and he kind of looked lost, was it the 3rd half of the preseason match against I think tigers? It was a new position for him and it showed. Right up until this trade period I was expecting him to turn into an inside mid as soon as him body is ready

They stopped playing him on the ball after he went in hard vs southport and nearly,snapped him in half was to skinny vs the big body's.

 

[caitsith01]

Re Knevitt, it's amazing how quickly people forget that many players take a year or two to even get near AFL standard. For every Joel Selwood playing regularly in year 1 there are 4-5 players who don't. Some of you would have been cutting Joel Corey, Cameron Ling etc etc from the list at the end of year 1.

On top of that, Geelong in recent years has been relatively slow to blood younger players and 2022 was an anomaly in that the club very clearly topped up with mature age recruits for a shot at the premiership and was never going to treat it as a year to develop young players at the risk of losing games.

I'll be concerned if Knevitt is nowhere near it at the end of this season.

 

[CHAWKTS]

They stopped playing him on the ball after he went in hard vs southport and nearly,snapped him in half was to skinny vs the big body's.

I was at the game - boys playing men! Frank stood up but the rest were beaten by Southport’s list of which 90% of them were ex AFL players and average age ~26. Frankly the rain was also so hard it was pushing our young boys over as well!

 

[Jumping Jack]

Can confirm that TDK is very much is the crosshairs of Geelong's list management team. They've liked him for some years and before SDK was drafted.

The Cats actually made a significant play for Curnow (as a couple of other clubs did). What that had the benefit of doing though was it blew Curnow's asking price sky high after the Blues had already re-signed Walsh and McKay to significant longer term deals. And it's widely known that the Blues also have a few other fat contracts they need to sit under their cap. So what that does is place them under a large amount of cap pressure to retain the likes of TDK and I think we're seeing that already with TDK's manager putting off contract talks until later this season ........ we all know how that normally plays out and it's a handy stalling tactic by players.

All I know is that there's TDK and one from another club who are the primary two targets at other clubs coming out of contract. The connection with a brother at Geelong / the family spending most of their time down the surfcoast / and the lure of the coastal lifestyle will all help. TDK is spotted very regularly on the surfcoast.

 

[Nest of Cats]

I was at the game - boys playing men! Frank stood up but the rest were beaten by Southport’s list of which 90% of them were ex AFL players and average age ~26. Frankly the rain was also so hard it was pushing our young boys over as well!

Southport should have come into the AFL instead of Gold Coast.

 

[gogeelongcats]

Knevitt has the body shape to develop into a flexible player with great upside.
He just needs time. I am excited to see what lies ahead for him.

 

[bombersboy]

I'm slowly learning not to give up on players but I see nothing with Knevitt that screams AFL player.

Let's hope he proves me wrong.

I think he showed a bit in the senior games he played. Got to the right spots and displayed really good hands in a couple of marks he took. Game against GWS (admittedly they were poor) he had 15 possessions and took 7 marks. Following week against St Kilda only had 7 and 1 but I thought that for a kid who clearly needed another 10 kilos of muscle and strength development he showed a fair bit for the future.

 

[CatRiot]

Knevitt has the body shape to develop into a flexible player with great upside.
He just needs time. I am excited to see what lies ahead for him.

Yeah, I must admit I was in the camp of almost writing him off after his first year. However, I think with a bigger frame, and given he has good running and marking ability, then I think we will see a decent enough improvement. I'd like to see him playing as an Inside-Midfielder and rotating Forward option. I don't think the Wing position is great for him tbh, I don't think he has the agility for that role. It's same with Menegola, I'd rather him as an Inside Midfield rotation and as a High Half Forward. At the moment though, Knevitt and Menegola are depth, and for rotations against weaker teams I think.

 

[Turbocat]

Can confirm that TDK is very much is the crosshairs of Geelong's list management team. They've liked him for some years and before SDK was drafted.

The Cats actually made a significant play for Curnow (as a couple of other clubs did). What that had the benefit of doing though was it blew Curnow's asking price sky high after the Blues had already re-signed Walsh and McKay to significant longer term deals. And it's widely known that the Blues also have a few other fat contracts they need to sit under their cap. So what that does is place them under a large amount of cap pressure to retain the likes of TDK and I think we're seeing that already with TDK's manager putting off contract talks until later this season ........ we all know how that normally plays out and it's a handy stalling tactic by players.

All I know is that there's TDK and one from another club who are the primary two targets at other clubs coming out of contract. The connection with a brother at Geelong / the family spending most of their time down the surfcoast / and the lure of the coastal lifestyle will all help. TDK is spotted very regularly on the surfcoast.

TDEK being of interest is no great surprise ... but how we can get the deal done is something more of a mystery

 

[Turbocat]

Re Knevitt, it's amazing how quickly people forget that many players take a year or two to even get near AFL standard. For every Joel Selwood playing regularly in year 1 there are 4-5 players who don't. Some of you would have been cutting Joel Corey, Cameron Ling etc etc from the list at the end of year 1.

On top of that, Geelong in recent years has been relatively slow to blood younger players and 2022 was an anomaly in that the club very clearly topped up with mature age recruits for a shot at the premiership and was never going to treat it as a year to develop young players at the risk of losing games.

I'll be concerned if Knevitt is nowhere near it at the end of this season.

After 12 months id say Knevitt has shown enough to say he has a good chance of a future. No doubt he need to add things to his game ..id say coping with others with bodies just as big as him drained him by years end... for his first year ..he debuted showed a glimpse or two... . This year will add more info to his story for me.

 

[Turbocat]

Defended your first post mate on the basis of it being an anomaly, but this one...oof this is so bad. Not dispelling any 'alt account' vibes by referring to 'the Cats' (when this is our board), either.

Let me get this straight...you want to replace Stewart if he goes down with...Sav? No mention of perhaps SDK and him sharing the load, or even rotating with Kolo (sorry I forgot Murdoch will be replacing him) and J. Henry? Nope let's go straight with replacing the elite foot skills, intercept marking, speed and decision making of Stewart with...Ratugolea?

Let's also then infer that Stewart never plays 22 games a season - when he's been both suspended and had a serious impact foot injury and issue with his collarbone (impact injury again) in 2 separate seasons, and played basically every other game since inception (he's missed 10 games due to injury in his short career over the first 6 seasons of his career, out of a possible 126 he's played thus far). Let's break this down even further shall we?

2017 was his first year after being drafted, and he played 21 of 25, but was dropped at one point, so not injury related - so played 21 of 21 games eligible
2018 was his second year, and he played 22 out of 23 games (missed 1 week due to twisted ankle thought to be syndesmosis, but returned the next week)
2019 was his 3rd year, and he played 25 out of 25 games and was AA again
2020 was his 4th year, played 18 out of 21 games and missed Rounds 5 to 7 with a suspected broken collarbone. Returned in Round 8 and played out season
2021 was his 5th year, played 20 of 25 games, AA, and played 20 of 20 games up until Round 21, then did his lisfranc at training - missed the rest of season
2022 was his 6th year, played 20 out of a possible 25 games, but suspended for 4, so only missed 1 game due to gastro - AA for the 4th time

************************************

So in his short career, he's missed only 10 games due to injury, where 7 weeks were due to a suspected broken collarbone and a lisfranc injury - both serious impact injuries (one from contact and the other from landing innocuously but badly). Twisted ankle saw him miss another week, and gastro the other. 4 incidents, 3 that have nothing to do with durability - so then one twisted ankle and no soft tissue injuries.

I'd say that is pretty damn durable wouldn't you? Even if hypothetically he wasn't though, don't you think we'd be replacing him with someone far more similar, like an O'Connor or even giving Ollie Henry a run down back and shifting roles for attack/rebound to someone like Tuohy, Zuthrie, Duncan etc. Ratugolea is a KPP, and could never replace a 4 time AA who is considered, if not the best, then among the Top 3 defenders in the comp. You want to replace him with someone who couldn't make it in their former position, can barely kick and doesn't always have the most 'sticky' hands when marking, and has played all of 1 game in defence at AFL level? There's been some bad calls on here, but gee whiz, that is an all time howler. Very hard to treat anything you say moving forward seriously, if that's the kind of out there stuff you're going to be posting. Probably don't refer to what is 'apparently' your own team as 'the Cats', either.

**************************************

FredLeDeux apologies, you had this one spot on from the get go, while I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

I hope we see Sav play some games but its going to be hard to see him fit in. I thought he showed a bit in that game last year. On games missed thru injury... id bet Sav misses more than Stewart in 23.. Sav has that knack of getting hurt but maybe in d he is more resilient.

Could he come in ..if Stewart as out thru injury? Maybe ..but he would be unlikely to play the same role..so it would depend on opposition and who we shuffle to where. Who is the tallest forwardline?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Can confirm that TDK is very much is the crosshairs of Geelong's list management team. They've liked him for some years and before SDK was drafted.

The Cats actually made a significant play for Curnow (as a couple of other clubs did). What that had the benefit of doing though was it blew Curnow's asking price sky high after the Blues had already re-signed Walsh and McKay to significant longer term deals. And it's widely known that the Blues also have a few other fat contracts they need to sit under their cap. So what that does is place them under a large amount of cap pressure to retain the likes of TDK and I think we're seeing that already with TDK's manager putting off contract talks until later this season ........ we all know how that normally plays out and it's a handy stalling tactic by players.

All I know is that there's TDK and one from another club who are the primary two targets at other clubs coming out of contract. The connection with a brother at Geelong / the family spending most of their time down the surfcoast / and the lure of the coastal lifestyle will all help. TDK is spotted very regularly on the surfcoast.

Im had heard about curnow from a different source that we were targeting him hard as a 2023 FA before he signed so its not surprising. Likewise im not surprised about TDK..given the likely stanley and ceglar retirements and our need for another ruck/fwd plus the family connection its an obvious fit and we do like our athletic talls. That said lets see how he goes as he will likely cost a R1 in a trade and given our lack of 2023 picks we may be better off with a cheaper ruck trade and there will be other options.

On the wages yes i have no doubt we forced them to offer big $ for curnow and mckay but i think their cap pressure is overblown.
Mcgovern is coming off 7-800k and wont get offered that again (ie they will re-sign him for half of that if he stays), williams was probably front ended (i assume), setterfield going opened up some cap. Dow is on good money and i suspect will get traded or delisted this year. Yes i think that walsh mckay curnow etc are on big money deals but overall i think they have the money to match whatever we offer tdk.
If he comes to us it wont be about money it will be because they miss finals again (or they play finals and he gets dropped) and he thinks he is more chance of success with us, if that makes sense.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

TDEK being of interest is no great surprise ... but how we can get the deal done is something more of a mystery

I mean we could get it done with a R1 (if he has a really good year it might cost that and a player) but that would leave us with no picks until the 90s.
The question is whether hes worth that-the ruck merry go round will be on so there will be cheaper trade options (ala lloyd meek last yr).
Its more whether we should get TDK not whether we can.