Geelong’s newest batch of Cats has gotten a glowing review from gun midfielder Cam Guthrie as the reigning premiers gathered their full squad together in the lead-up to the Christmas break.
Guthrie, who was on hand draft night to present first round draft pick Jhye Clark with his jumper, said the new players, draftees, and recruits alike, have folded into the group nicely.
“We’ve had a couple of group dinners and it's great to see the 18 year old’s come in full of enthusiasm as they find their feet," he told geelongcats.com.au.
“Also Tanner (Bruhn), Ollie (Henry), and Jack (Bowes), to come from different clubs, I feel like I can tell already that they're the type of people we want around our football club, just the way they go about their business, so it's exciting times.”
Guthrie himself is coming off a career year where he picked up his second Carji Greeves Medal in three seasons, leading the Cats in disposals - 613 at 24.5 per game - and finished second in tackles (124 at five per game) and total clearances (107), sandwiched between retired skipper Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield.
Guthrie shared the medal with Jeremy Cameron, just the second time in the club’s history that there was a tie, after Gary Ablett Jnr and Corey Enright were joint winners in 2009, incidentally, also a premiership year.
“It was great to be acknowledged on an individual basis but it was a bit of a blur coming off the premiership from that prior weekend, which was kind of what the week was all about, Guthrie said.
“But to be able to share it with Jez, made it a really enjoyable time.”
While the fans might be celebrating the historic premiership through Christmas, Guthrie said the players are back to work preparing for the 2023 season.
“The focus pre-Christmas is to get through, stay on top of my body, build a fitness base going into next year,” he said.
“As a group we're putting in the foundations for what our team might look like next year, so, fair bit of footy stuff, some conditioning and running and that type of thing too so we think it's a really important time of the year to build that foundation for next year.
