Anyone who read the classic French comic books, Asterix and Obelix, will be familiar with an oft quoted line in the series; “The sky is falling”.

The poor Gauls couldn’t see that such an occurrence wasn’t possible. Unfortunately they couldn’t look at a single bad event by itself instead looking at it as a reason of impending doom.

In today’s world with our knowledge of the atmosphere and gravity we know that the sky can’t fall on our heads. Things dropping from the sky can, of course, but for the whole things to come crashing down around us, well, that just doesn’t happen.

However, what we do have in today’s world is the same type of hysteria but on a different scale. Does one great defeat mean a total defeat? Ie. Does a 110 point thrashing from the Swans mean Cats fans should start booking in their September trips to the lovely French countryside?

The answer could be yes but the sky could also fall on our heads. There is evidence however to point to the contrary. There is evidence that the Cats can continue on with their good form from the beginning of the year and we’ll all be content to stand outside with the clouds, sun, birds and moon happily above us.

Let’s outline the reasons for optimism.

The Cats have played the best and faired pretty well.
So far in 2014, the Cats have played seven of the top nine teams for a record of four wins and three losses. Of the club's losses, three of them came interstate at inopportune times for the Cats including one of them being off a six day break and one being the Cats third game in 12 days against a side playing its first game in that same period. From here on in the Cats will play sides currently placed 12th, 16th, 5th, 10th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 8th, 7th, 12th, 2nd and 18th.

Only one other side hasn’t lost in their home state.
In 2014, only two sides haven’t lost on their home turf. The Cats with a 6-0 record in Victoria and the Power with a 5-0 record in South Australia are the only two sides to drive home at the end of every game with a smile on their face. In fact the Cats have 10 of their remaining 12 games in the best state on our brown and gold continent, which leads to our next point.

The Cats have played the equal most games interstate of any Victorian side.
This point must be prefaced by the fact that teams from South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales have to play outside their state a hell of a lot more than us Victorian sides. But if we bring it back into our insular Victorian mindsets we can see that the Cats and Hawks have played more games interstate in the first half of their season than any other Victorian team. In fact, the Cats have played three of their four interstate games against the powerhouses of Sydney, Port Adelaide and Fremantle teams that currently sit first and equal second. But if the Cats hope to advance in the finals in 2014 they will likely have to play one of these teams on their home turf again.

The Tomahawk is back
After a devastating back injury in 2013, Tom Hawkins is back in the form that saw him claim the 2012 Carji Greeves medal and an All Australian spot. He is currently sitting third in the Coleman medal, three behind the leader and amazingly was one of the few Cats to have a win on Thursday night with three of the Cats five goals. Hawkins will need more help down in the forward line and there are a couple of names who will be returning to the Cats line-up.

Return of the injured Cats
After a horror run with injuries to start 2014, the Cats are finally getting some of their injured players back on the park. Steven Motlop has now been back playing AFL for a bit over a month and is seeing a return to his fantastic aerobic capacity, Billie Smedts was able to blow some cobwebs out in his first game for 2014 last week and Shane Kersten, still yet to make his AFL debut, bagged a couple of majors in his first hit out of 2014 two weeks ago. Next back are Allen Christensen and Josh Caddy who although will need a few weeks respectively to hit their previous levels, will be building nicely for the tail end of the season. More immediately the Cats will be hoping star defenders Corey Enright and Tom Lonergan will return this week.  

2014 is the most even season in a long time
No one has claims on this year’s premiership. No one. All teams have had their good and bad days. Even just this weekend top of the table Port Adelaide nearly lost to 15th placed Melbourne and second placed Hawthorn were very lucky to beat 17th place GWS. The same GWS who has knocked off Sydney. The same Hawthorn that destroyed a Fremantle side who did the same thing to Collingwood earlier. On any given day any side can win. Where do the teams with the highest average losing margin sit? Why 5th and 6th. Where does the team with the highest average winning margin sit? 11th of course! A peculiar year 2014 is turning out to be.