Coach Chris Scott has warned Geelong’s sustained boom could quickly go bust if they assume they will stay an AFL power.
The future continues to look bright for the Cats after Friday night’s pulsating five-point preliminary final loss to Hawthorn.
They have an outstanding group of younger players, highlighted by the strong performances from Cameron Guthrie, Jordan Murdoch and sub Josh Caddy against the Hawks.
They are enjoying the greatest era in the club’s history, with three premierships since they last missed the finals in 2006.
But some of the stars from those premiership teams are on the way out and Scott said they must not over-rate the strength of the playing list.
“Saying `we made a prelim final and we have some young players coming through, so everything is going to be better next year’ – that’s a really dangerous approach to take,” Scott told SEN.
“We have to improve significantly.
“We saw probably six or seven sides finish outside the eight and they’re going to be extremely competitive next year.
“If we don’t improve, if our young players don’t show the sort of commitment the senior players have shown, we’ll slip very quickly.”
As he did immediately after Friday night’s loss, Scott on Saturday would not discuss whether veterans such as Paul Chapman and Josh Hunt had played their last games for the Cats.
Scott also made it clear that narrowly losing the preliminary final was not good enough for a team so motivated to be the best.
Asked if he felt the season had been a failure, Scott replied: “right at the moment it feels like it is.
“We’re all competitors down at Geelong and anything less than a win on the last Saturday in September isn’t good enough.
“But when you step back and have a look at the last three or four years in particular, I don’t think there were too many people predicting where we are today.
“It depends whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist.”
Scott admitted the loss of ruckman Dawson Simpson to injury during the season had forced the team to re-adjust “not necessarily to our plan A”.
He also dearly would have loved to have had Chapman (suspension) and Corey Enright (knee injury) in Friday night’s team.
But for all that, the Cats somehow managed to generate one last shot on goal with 30 seconds left.
Travis Varcoe’s kick went wide and the Hawks held on to break `the Kennett Curse’.
“To generate that shot, even though we made some errors in those last five-minute period, says less about our game style and more about the character or our players,” he said.
