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After all, Chris Scott has incredibly led the hoops to preliminary final weekend in 10 of his 15 years in charge, as well as his fourth grand final this weekend, and two premierships to date \u2014 which could well become three.<\/p>\n
Foxfooty.com.au examines into the nuts and bolts of the absolute machine that is Geelong\u2019s list management with insights from former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and two-time Cats flag-winner Cameron Mooney, ahead of Saturday\u2019s blockbuster flag-decider. <\/p>\n
TOP PICKS ARE OVERRATED!<\/p>\n
The Cats certainly haven\u2019t forged an identity for making moneyball picks at the top of drafts. Just consider the unfulfilled careers of Billie Smedts (no.15 pick in 2010), Jackson Thurlow (no.16 in 2012), Darcy Lang (no.16 in 2013), Nakia Cockatoo (no.10 in 2014) and Cooper Stephens (no.16 in 2019). <\/p>\n
After whiffing on Cockatoo in 2014, the Cats didn\u2019t make another first-round draft selection until they snapped up speedster Jordan Clark at no.15 in 2018, whom they ultimately traded on to Fremantle for Pick 22 \u2014 which became ruck Toby Conway \u2014 in 2021. <\/p>\n
Overall, since the 2014 national draft, Geelong has made just six selections in the first round \u2014 Jordan Clark (2018), Stephens (2019), Sam De Koning (no.19 in 2019), Max Holmes (no.20 in 2020), Jhye Clark (no.8 in 2022) and Connor O\u2019Sullivan (no.11 in 2023) \u2014 and four of them will trot out on Saturday afternoon at the MCG. <\/p>\n
And dashing midfielder Holmes, who missed out on the club\u2019s 2022 grand final belting of Sydney due to injury, will finally get his chance at premiership redemption. <\/p>\n
Instead, the Cats \u2014 with 40-year recruiting virtuoso Stephen Wells leading the charge \u2014 have done, and continue to do, their most industrious list work by extracting lesser-known names from places nobody thinks to scout and turning them into week-to-week senior contributors. <\/p>\n
A third of Geelong\u2019s best team is made up of mature-age recruiting success stories \u2014 Mark Blicavs, Mark O\u2019Connor, Tom Stewart, Tom Atkins, Brad Close, Oisin Mullin, Shaun Mannagh, and Lawson Humphries.<\/p>\n
Snoop Dog reveals “Love” for AFL | 04:33<\/p>\n
Why have the Cats consistently targeted mature-aged prospects? And how have they been able to develop and get the best out of them like few other rivals?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they (the Cats) are probably as good as anyone at identifying the way they want to play. So, all of this is in planning, I would have thought,\u201d Buckley told Foxfooty.com.au. <\/p>\n
\u201cIdentify the way they want to play, the type of characteristics that they want to add, whether it\u2019s a skillset or a personality trait, (a) position. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they bring them into their environment, and they know their environment so well that they (say) \u2018OK, this person, this athlete can come in and just naturally develop in our system, and we think that their skillsets are going to be able to help us play the type of footy that we think is going to win in September\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve done that really well. I also believe that the leadership and the locker room become really important \u2026 I just think Geelong trusts that they\u2019ve got solid leadership \u2014 (Patrick) Dangerfield, obviously back in the day you had (Joel) Selwood. And obviously you\u2019ve got to make that transition, but (Mark) Blicavs, (Tom) Atkins \u2014 just guys that are good, solid leaders and individuals that want to win and are prepared to sacrifice for \u2018team\u2019. That\u2019s probably the consistent (theme). <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you come in as a 25-year-old and you think \u2018OK, if that\u2019s what\u2019s rewarded, and this is what\u2019s been driven, well then that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be\u2019. So, they\u2019ve done really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horse & Simmo talk about GF experience | 07:39<\/p>\n
Floated the idea that the Cats perhaps target more mature-age players because they\u2019re further along in their development, and that helps a team like Geelong \u2014 which is seemingly always contending \u2014 in not having to bide their time while younger prospects develop, Buckley said: \u201cYeah, I think there is a little bit of that in the philosophy. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if it was just that easy, then every other club would be doing it. <\/p>\n
\u201cShaun Mannagh was available to anyone and everyone, same as (Dayne) Zorko was for a period, same as Brody Mihocek was for a period. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there are late-maturers, or people that take a little bit more time to get there, or different things are going on in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckley used Stewart, who was overlooked in four drafts and starred for the VFL Cats in 2016 before being offered his first AFL contract, as a prime example of his contention. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor Tom Stewart, who was in the under-16s Country academy, and his parents, he was going through home stuff, and the kid that I saw then was a long way off \u2014 he didn\u2019t make our final team, but then six years later, he comes through as a somewhat mature-age, he would\u2019ve been 21 or 22, and then he\u2019s ready,\u201d Buckley said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I think maybe Geelong are prepared to throw the net a little bit wider, keep their eyes on a little bit more of a catchment area from a recruiting or talent perspective, somehow, compared to an opposition club, and maybe they just back their judgement a little bit more \u2014 their processes, and seeing things other clubs don\u2019t see. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut absolutely, it\u2019s a moneyball approach. And they\u2019ve got some bang for buck. They\u2019ve demonstrated being able to make some calls and take some risks on some players for low cost to see what they can turn them into.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckley explained that the Cats\u2019 ability to hit big on low-cost players lent itself to having the financial capital to chase the competition\u2019s big names. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd once you\u2019ve done that once or twice, three or four times, then you\u2019ve got some validation \u2026 It\u2019s a pretty good way of adding potential players to your program that don\u2019t cost you a lot if it doesn\u2019t work, but if it does, as you can see with some of their guys, you think \u2026 \u2018that puts us in a pretty good position\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201c(They\u2019re thinking) \u2018We haven\u2019t spent too much of our draft capital, we\u2019re not spending too much of our TPP (total player payments), we can go and get a Jeremy Cameron, or we can go and get a Bailey Smith. <\/p>\n
\u201cOr, we can go and get someone that we really think is going to make a significant difference to where we might have to invest a little bit more of your capital to get, but we can do that because we\u2019ve got these moneyball picks that we\u2019re prepared to gamble with a little bit to see whether we can find two or three or four or five blokes who can play important roles for low cost\u2019 \u2014 and they\u2019ve been able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Browny: ‘Can’t take a risk on Neale’ | 04:20<\/p>\n
THE LIST WINS TO PROPEL FLAG TILTS<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s most versatile weapon, Sunbury\u2019s Mark Blicavs, was the no.54 rookie draft pick in 2011 and was Category B rookie-listed for the first three years of his career. He\u2019s since gone on to play 294 games, win two best-and-fairest awards and earn an All-Australian nod in a premiership-winning 2022 campaign. <\/p>\n
The off-season of 2016 saw the Cats add five future premiership players, including current stars Tom Stewart, Jack Henry, Zach Guthrie and Mark O\u2019Connor, as well as the now-retired Zach Tuohy. <\/p>\n
Stewart was famously the no.40 draft pick as a 23-year-old, and while he devastatingly won\u2019t play on Saturday due to a concussion, the five-time All-Australian has been integral to the Cats\u2019 cause for close to a decade. <\/p>\n
Henry and Guthrie were both rookie draft picks, nos.16 and 33 respectively, and have since combined for 290 games in what remains a rock-solid defence. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, meanwhile, was an unregistered player selection from County Kerry in Ireland. <\/p>\n
Local product Gryan Miers, who began his career as a purely forward-half weapon before integrating into the guts as one of the competition\u2019s more damaging score-involvement players, was the no.57 national draft pick in 2017. <\/p>\n
A year later, Geelong again snapped up a rookie draft gem in Tom Atkins \u2014 another success story from the club\u2019s VFL program \u2014 who\u2019s arguably been the Cats\u2019 most unheralded midfield star this season. And in 2019, it was pressure forward Brad Close who arrived as the no.14 rookie pick. <\/p>\n
And the next year, the Cats only had to spend Pick 33 on Shannon Neale, their spearhead key forward of the future. <\/p>\n
Electric winger Ollie Dempsey arrived in 2021 \u2014 club great Andrew Mackie\u2019s first off-season in charge of list management operations after assuming the reins from Wells \u2014 and quickly became another stark list triumph for Geelong, with the no.13 rookie draft pick incredibly going on to win last year\u2019s Rising Star award. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a pretty good argument to be made that Dempsey has been Mackie\u2019s biggest hit yet since being elevated to list boss, but the 2023 off-season wins give the blonde-haired livewire a run for his money. <\/p>\n
Expert tagging speedster Oisin Mullin was snagged in the same off-season as Dempsey and has become the latest in a growing line of Irish successes at Geelong. Both aim to claim their first premiership medallions on Saturday. <\/p>\n
The 2023 national draft bore delicious fruits for the Cats, who landed VFL superstar Shaun Mannagh with the no.36 pick \u2014 a selection they attained from Essendon after trading down earlier in the intake to nab key defender O\u2019Sullivan; another starter on grand final day. <\/p>\n
It was just a year earlier that Mannagh was slotting majors for Werribee in the VFL decider, and now he\u2019ll look to snag one or two against the Lions on footy\u2019s biggest stage. <\/p>\n
And as if O\u2019Sullivan and Mannagh weren\u2019t enough, at no.63, the Cats plucked smooth-moving mid-sized defender Lawson Humphries out of Swan Districts. <\/p>\n
Welsh determined to keep hold of Merrett | 03:19<\/p>\n
TRADE WINS AND \u2018DESTINATION CLUB\u2019 STRATEGY<\/p>\n
Geelong hasn\u2019t typically been a blockbuster trade player over the years, save for luring Patrick Dangerfield and Jeremy Cameron home in 2015 and 2020 respectively \u2014 as well as Gary Ablett in 2017. <\/p>\n
And while \u2018Danger\u2019 and \u2018Jezza\u2019 continue to be driving forces for the Cats, it\u2019s also been the more under-the-radar trade deals and signings that have propped the club up. <\/p>\n
Trading for Rhys Stanley in 2014 has, whether you want to admit it or not, paid decade-long dividends, and the great surviving ruck is set to return to Scott\u2019s line-up on Saturday. <\/p>\n
Geelong took a chance on delisted free agent Tyson Stengle in 2021 and helped turn him into an All-Australian goalsneak, then the next year the club traded with Gold Coast for Jack Bowes and the no.7 pick (Jhye Clark) in a shrewd \u2018salary dump\u2019 deal. <\/p>\n
And last year, the Cats offered Jack Martin a lifeline after persistent injury derailed his progress at both the Suns and Carlton \u2014 and while his year started slowly, it\u2019s panned out handsomely for the versatile utility. <\/p>\n
Then, as Buckley alluded to, comes the big fish, with Geelong parting with a first-round pick for Bailey Smith in a move which has been retrospectively looked upon as genius, with Smith earning his maiden All-Australian blazer and tying with Gold Coast captain Noah Anderson for the Coaches\u2019 Association Player of the Year award. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows where the club is at,\u201d triple premiership forward Cameron Mooney told Foxfooty.com.au. \u201cI came down to the club in 2000 and no one wanted to go to Geelong. We were the laughing stock down the road from Melbourne \u2014 the old \u2018Handbaggers\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-five years later, they\u2019re one of the biggest destination clubs in the AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say this all the time: It is the greatest place to bring up a young family. You\u2019re just out of the Melbourne hub, but you still get that Melbourne feel. Geelong is a beautiful place, if you want to live coastal or (on) farm land, it\u2019s 20 minutes away from the club. <\/p>\n
\u201cA traffic jam will cost you six or seven minutes, not an hour and six or seven minutes, as it does in Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to Foxfooty.com.au in the 2025 pre-season, five-time All-Australian defender Tom Stewart remarked that the Cats would continue to \u201cutilise\u201d the club\u2019s geographical appeal when attempting to lure rival talent \u2014 having done so when facilitating Smith\u2019s arrival from the Western Bulldogs. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome people do like the hustle and bustle of Melbourne; they like being a part of it, and being in there is for some,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut those that want to have an escape, if you will, and the ability to escape that bubble that is quite intense at times in Melbourne \u2026 it\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to utilise down here. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes our community unique and what makes our club unique is we do have (a) quieter nature \u2026 down here, compared to a big city like Melbourne.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong\u2019s utterly remarkable list build is set to see it line up for Saturday\u2019s AFL grand final with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110615,1146,110607,107267,64,63,689,110623,110628,110634,3237,37351,110613,109098,3244,12923,110616,110605,106613,12929,15832,110618,2057,70802,110627,51244,110629,82802,13659,2485,11288,110644,49317,110094,108953,110622,110608,110645,109786,110624,26779,49793,3231,27763,110633,12141,27752,30404,19052,36858,25875,24309,110606,11182,110612,19051,110610,110602,12137,647,110642,26511,110646,673,25844,3583,110632,677,110643,110609,39209,110636,110637,48874,19095,110639,110635,110638,701,110603,110631,110617,19071,110614,110630,52630,110625,110611,19064,85,110620,23826,670,110641,61648,12113,110619,109666,82592,110640,110626,660,110604,698,85477,25581,110621],"class_list":["post-169019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-16s-country-academy","tag-adam-simpson","tag-andrew-mackie","tag-andrew-welsh","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-billie-smedts","tag-blockbuster-trade-player","tag-bore-delicious-fruits","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-cameron-mooney","tag-catchment-area","tag-champions-coaches","tag-chris-fagan","tag-chris-scott","tag-cooper-stephens","tag-damaging-score-involvement-players","tag-day-coverage","tag-destination-club","tag-draft-picks","tag-electric-winger","tag-europe","tag-final-team","tag-first-round-draft","tag-first-round-draft-picks","tag-first-round-draft-selection","tag-gary-ablett","tag-geelong-cats","tag-gold-coast","tag-grand-final","tag-grand-final-belting","tag-grand-final-day","tag-grand-final-performance","tag-grand-final-successafl","tag-gryan-miers","tag-home-stuff","tag-horse-amp-simmo","tag-horse-ampamp-simmo","tag-horse-ampampamp-simmo","tag-ireland","tag-jack-henry","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jack-martin","tag-jackson-thurlow","tag-jeremy-cameron","tag-jhye-clark","tag-john-longmire","tag-jonathan-brown","tag-jordan-clark","tag-lachie-neale","tag-list-management","tag-list-management-operations","tag-locker-room","tag-low-cost-players-lent","tag-mark-blicavs","tag-mature-age-players","tag-mature-age-recruiting-success","tag-max-holmes","tag-melbourne","tag-moneyball-picks","tag-nathan-buckley","tag-nathan-buckly","tag-new-south-wales","tag-noah-anderson","tag-northern-europe","tag-nuts-and-bolts","tag-oceania","tag-off-season-wins","tag-opposition-club","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-perpetual-flag-contention","tag-personality-trait","tag-player-payments","tag-preliminary-final","tag-premiership-medallions","tag-premiership-players","tag-premiership-redemption","tag-queensland","tag-recruiting-success-stories","tag-recruiting-virtuoso","tag-remarkable-list-build","tag-rhys-stanley","tag-rookie-draft","tag-rookie-draft-gem","tag-rookie-draft-pick","tag-rookie-pick","tag-salary-dump","tag-sam-de-koning","tag-sports","tag-strategy-success","tag-success-story","tag-sydney","tag-talent-perspective","tag-toby-conway","tag-tom-stewart","tag-trade-wins","tag-traffic-jam","tag-tyson-stengle","tag-under-the-radar-trade-deals","tag-unregistered-player-selection","tag-victoria","tag-week-to-week-senior-contributors","tag-western-bulldogs","tag-zach-guthrie","tag-zach-merrett","tag-zach-tuohy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}