Geelong coach Chris Scott is confident his side is in a better place than this time 12 months ago.
The Cats, coming off winning the 2022 flag, missed the finals in 2023 – a sharp fall for the veteran side.
However, not playing in September has given Geelong their longest pre-season in a number of years and Scott believes they’re well prepared for the upcoming year of footy.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a long off-season period. Missing the finals gives you that extra week compared to where it was when we last missed finals which I think was over 10 years ago,” Scott told SEN Breakfast.
“We’ve been really conscious not to assume that that’s going to give us any added benefits, but it certainly has allowed us to get prepared in terms of post-season surgery and those sorts of things.
“We feel confident that our preparation has been good, certainly better than last year which is all you can really do, compare yourself to where you were 12 months prior.
“That really tangible example of surgeries being done in late August as opposed to October and it doesn’t guarantee that because we’re in pretty good shape now that that will flow through into the season, we were going well this time last year, but then we lost a couple of defenders on the eve of the season which made it a challenge for us.
“I think you can focus too much on health and fitness and availability. It’s really about what you do from here and to execute on some of the shifts we’ve made.”
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2024 will be a big year for the Cats, who enter as the second oldest list in the competition behind Collingwood.
One young player impressing over summer is Irishman Oisín Mullin, who played six games for the Cats in his debut season.
“We’re really happy. His physical adaptation has been fantastic,” Scott said.
“He came to Australia in pretty good shape already, he’s a powerful athlete with real speed.
“The watch on the Irish players tends to be how they kick the ball, but also the contact that they don’t really experience in Gaelic footy, but Oisín is as physical as we have on our list, that part of it has been covered of.
“Now really it’s a matter of giving him opportunity and settling him in a position so he can play on instinct instead of playing in a manner that suggests he’s still learning the game, I think he has moved beyond that phase, which is exciting for us.”
The Cats used pick 11 in the 2023 draft on key defender Connor O’Sullivan, who received some early hype from teammate Gryan Miers.
Miers told News Corp that O’Sullivan is “the type of guy you’d offer a 10-year contract to straight away”.
Scott laughed off the hyperbole, saying “that’s optimistic!”
“(O’Sullivan has) got all the attributes you like to see in a young player. He’s really enthusiastic … already you can see that he plays with that kind of feel for his teammates,” he added.
“He was clearly an influential player as a junior and playing as a key back, it stands you in good stead because you need to think about what’s happening up the field and have an influence in the way players up the field are defending.”
There has also been quite a bit of hype around ruckman Toby Conway, who has only played one career game, but looks like the club’s ruck of the future.
Scott said he is excited to see what the 20-year-old can do in 2024, but is thinking more long-term with Conway.
“It’s exciting because he hasn’t had (a full pre-season) in his time at the club,” he said.
“In parts because of injury issues, but also because we’ve held him back a bit, which is our philosophy with younger players, but particularly the ones who have come in with injury concerns.
“Toby officially is measured at 207cm, we think he might be a little taller than that, but he’s a big man who has had lower limb issues, so it is incumbent on us to be careful with those.
“We’re optimistic about what he could do this year, but I’m much more excited about the 10 years after that.
“He should embrace a little bit of the pressure he’s probably feeling to perform. There’s no reason why he can’t come in and perform straight away. We’ve just got to balance that with what is possible long term.”
Geelong will take on Carlton next Thursday as part of a televised match simulation, before hosting Essendon at GMHBA Stadium in the AFL Community Series.