Here’s a few things geelongcats.com.au will be keeping an eye on this week.
All eyes on… The MCG
We love it down in Geelong but we all know there’s something extra special about taking on the Hawks at the mighty MCG. Obviously it’ll look a bit different this year with 50K plus fans packed into the home of footy rather than the 20 odd crickets and masked security guards who witnessed our last game against Hawthorn at GMHBA Stadium in June.
Thankfully, normal transmission has resumed and one of footy’s fiercest rivalries will reignite on Easter Monday with fans in the stands, just as it should be. The first time the two sides met on a Monday was way back in 1928 at Corio Oval in front of 9500 people. We expect a few more at the G’ on Monday.. if you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, you can do that here.
The great Australian bard Paul Kelly once sung:
I'm high on the hill, looking over the bridge to the MCG / And way up on high, the clock on the silo says eleven degrees…
You know the song. The good news is with a sunny Easter weekend forecast, the ground should be bathed in sunshine on Monday. Why would you want to be anywhere else?
All eyes on… Issac Smith
As if the rivalry needed any more spice… And then three-time premiership Hawthorn hero Smith go and joins the Cats over the off-season and instantly becomes a crowd favourite.
It’s fair to say that Smith’s move is talking point around Hawks HQ this week if Luke Bruest’s comments in the media are anything to go. Here’s a taste:
"Don't you worry, there will certainly be a few boys lining up to get him."
And a bit more if you didn’t quite get the message:
"If he's in the road then I'm sure the boys will be pretty happy to clean him up.”
All the boys on both sides are competitive beasts so we love a bit of banter leading into a game like this, but the best part may have been Issie’s response, delivered with trademark grin:
“They’re usually pretty close games. If they want to worry about that stuff hopefully we end up getting the ball.”
All eyes on… Merrick
As the story goes, when Irishman Mark O’Connor introduced himself to his new teammates back in 2016, his Irish accent had some thinking his name was Merrick, rather than Mark, and the name has stuck.
Now, after Friday night’s performance locking down Brisbane Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale, it’s fair to say the whole footy world knows Mark O’Connor’s name.
Former Cats skipper Cameron Ling, probably the best tagger the game has even seen, is still spotted around the club on a semi-regular basis as the host of the club’s official podcast, To the Final Bell, and you can’t help but wonder if he’s passed on some of his wisdom to the County Kerry product because it’s not every day Neale gets held to 16 disposals. In fact, it was only the third time in five seasons.
So if you’re looking for the game within the game on Monday, watch the eyes of the star Hawks mids like Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara as they line up at the centre bounce. No one wants O’Connor by their side when the siren sounds.
All eyes on… Match Committee
We’re two games in and a good portion of the squad that was set to surround Tom Hawkins in the forward half are on the sidelines. Patrick Dangerfield and Gary Rohan will miss through suspension, Jeremy Cameron is managing a hamstring injury, Esava Ratugolea is missing with a lower leg injury.. the list goes on. But, that’s footy. It’s a marathon not a sprint, as they say.
The good news for Chris Scott is that the Cats have spread their offence across a number of players this season with seven players having already notched two goals or more this season with Hawkins (5) and Issac Smith (3) leading the way. Francis Evans bobbed up last week and kicked two on debut, and the skipper even chimed in with a couple on Friday night as well. All in all, the signs are good for the rest of the season.
That said, if the Cats do look outside last week’s 22 for a bit of extra firepower, Ben Jarvis kicked four in a VFL practice match on the weekend, as did Brad Close, and big Josh Jenkins kicked five of his own.
