The North Shore Football Club in Norlane is not where you’d generally find some of the AFL’s finest players, but due to the unavailability of the Cats’ regular home at GMHBA Stadium, that’s one of the places where Geelong’s full list has been training in the lead up to Christmas so far this pre-season. .
The majority of Geelong’s senior listed players returned on December 5, while the teams younger players, have been sweating it out on the track for a few weeks already, including a raft of new faces that have arrived through the recent draft and trade periods.
Assistant coach James Kelly, talking with AFL Media from Windsor Park, said all of the new players have fit in well.
“They’re just really great people,” he said. “They're obviously really talented footballers, everybody knows that, but to get three quality people in the door is really good for us as a football club.
“They've already slotted in really well socially with the boys and they're here all the time, they're training, and we're excited to see the impact they can have on the group and the whole club.”
Of those new faces, one of them is Jhye Clark, the club’s ‘highest draft selection since 2006.
“He's like most first years”, Kelly said. “He's a bit quiet and a bit nervous but it's the same again with the other three that we've brought in, he's a really good kid.”
“With all of our draftees we do prioritise good people are a little bit more and we're really happy that he's here. He's a good person, he's obviously got some talent and earned his position in the draft and we're really fortunate to have him on board.”
Geelong won 16 straight games on their way to the premiership in September, but Kelly said the plan running into the Christmas break is not to ‘maintain the rage’ but just focus on the group being together.
“I think the key is not to try to maintain the rage to early so pre-Christmas,” he said.
“We just want the group to be together, work well together, train well, get a relative amount of work until to them without overworking them pre-Christmas and then worry about all those sorts of things in terms of games and winning matches when we need to.”
“If you feel ready to get back to work it means you've had a good break so it's exciting to get everyone back and see the new players and start working with the group again,” Kelly said.
