Arrivals
Onfield: Mitch Brown, Tom Gillies, Steven Motlop, Taylor Hunt, Adam Varcoe (rookie), Bryn Wheadon (rookie), Tom Allwright (rookie), Ranga Ediriwickrama (rookie).
Off-field: Nigel Lappin (assistant coach), Dale Amos (Geelong VFL coach).
Departures
Onfield: Brent Prismall (traded to Essendon), Nathan Ablett (retired), Jason Davenport (delisted – redrafted by Port Adelaide), Liam Bedford (rookie – delisted), Chris Kangars (rookie – delisted).
Off-field: Leigh Tudor (Geelong VFL coach)
Pre-season training started: Thursday, November 20 (main group)
Post-Christmas training resumes: Monday, January 5
Post-Christmas training venue: The Cats hope to be back on Skilled Stadium for the majority of their summer sessions by early in the new year. The club has spent its pre-Christmas block split mainly between three venues – the Geelong Cricket Ground outside Skilled Stadium, Geelong College’s oval and also the town’s main baseball fields.
Medical room
Matthew Egan (foot): Unlikely to play in 2009
Tom Hawkins (foot): Restricted pre-Christmas program, being eased into pre-season workload.
Tom Harley (knee): Restricted pre-Christmas program, being eased into pre-season workload.
Steven Motlop (shoulder): Arm in sling until Christmas, limited training until late January. Aiming to be available for the NAB Cup
Who's burning?
Simon Hogan was an emergency for the Cats’ senior side last year and looks hell-bent on going one step further in 2009. He is running some impressive times at training and the emerging midfielder – who looked a cut above VFL level at times this year – looks to be benefiting from his third pre-season at AFL level.
Tom Hawkins, despite not being to enjoy a full workload yet, also appears in good shape and looks to have toned up in the early part of the summer.
Pre-season training camps
While some rivals packed their bags and headed for high-tech facilities oversea, Geelong has set about building its fitness by shedding the kilos close to home. And the Cats don’t look like straying too far in coming months. The club has visited the Gold Coast in recent years as part of the AFL’s Telstra Community Camps but this year looks likely to head to Victoria’s nearby Surf Coast, giving local fans a greater chance to see their heroes up close.
Pre-season training overview
“Our blokes are working pretty well. They know what they have to do and they work pretty hard at it.
“The more mature blokes, especially, know what they have to do, the younger blokes we have to push a little bit harder.
“We mix up what they do a bit. We know what we’re trying to achieve so you don’t just have to do the same old stuff. There are a means to an end to achieving either an aerobic workout or an anaerobic workout or skill development or games playing … we like to stimulate them a little bit.
“They all train together at different times but they are all separated at different times, depending on what they need.
“There has been more of an emphasis on bringing the young blokes through at a slightly different rate to the more mature blokes but that’s kind of always been the case.
“There’s several fellas who are at different stages depending on when they recover from things, which changes a little bit where they are in the program. But everyone’s program is so individual [that] no-one’s sort of behind or in front.”
– Geelong football manager Neil Balme
What coach Mark Thompson says:
“[The Grand Final] just wasn’t our day … so you’ve just got to move forward and just think, ‘What can we do to make our club a better club and better team and get us in a position to win another premiership?’
“Our plan is to win every game of footy we play in and our plan is to provide a better program and be a better team.
“We're going to probably copy a little bit of what Hawthorn do and the competition will copy them.
“It constantly moves and we just have to stay ahead of the trends.”
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
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More 2009 pre-season reports
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