In round 1 next year Geelong will field a side with 10 players over the age of 30.

These players retirement is imminent and will leave the cats with a massive hole to fill.

Their fate will resemble that of Brisbane, Adelaide and now st kilda.

Let's hope they smash the pies next week because the coming years won't be so pretty.

Good luck chris Scott because you will need it.

3 premierships in 5 years... I could live with a wooden spoon after that.

In fact, I think the year would be a write-off anyway. I'd be drunk until at least mid-October.

Edited September 24, 201114 yr by pitchfork

i think the saints will have more issues..

Cats have topped up with some young guys like Menzel, Duncan, Christensen, Billie Smedts, Vardy plus players like Selwood, Varcoe, Harry Taylor, Hawkins, etc are still young.. plus they still have a mid first round pick from Gaz

Saints wasted first round picks on players like Lovett and now have Gilbert, Cripps, Mcevoy and Siposs to move them forward..

I know which team I would prefer!!

They could go the way of Brisbane, or they could go the way of Sydney. Really up to Scott

I wouldn't dismiss the Saints just yet. Look at how Scott has been able to revitalize the ageing Geelong list and inspire them to reach another Grand Final. I think losing Lyon could be the best thing to happen to them.

They stlil have a list with the likes of Riewoldt, Goddard (for now), Dal Santo, Montagna, Hayes and Milne. I think 'bottoming out' at this stage would be the height of weakness... they won't be as well placed to take a premiership for a long, long time.

They will win another one next year

Geelong have some pretty good kids, many still in the VFL who haven't been seen yet.

Don't think they will need a full rebuild once the veterans retire.

Edited September 25, 201114 yr by ox_5

All born 1994 or later (ie. will be still going strong in 2013)

FB: Lonergan

HB: Mackie Taylor T. Hunt

C: Selwood Varcoe

HF: Hawkins

FF:Stokes Brown Menzel

R: Vardy Christensen Duncan

Int: West

That's a great spine of a side, probably better than bottom 4 already. Plus Motlop, Simpson, Guthrie, Smedts, Horlin-Smith are all highly rated and have barely been seen.

The main problem is the guys born between 85 and 87. The have Harry Taylor and west and that's it. So they'll dip down over the next few years until the youngsters take them up. They'll be like West Coast over the last few years. The question will be how low they dip and even if it's bottom 4 it won't be for a long time.

Certainly Scott and Balme have their work cut out for them in this off season. Some healthy pruning and good supplimenting will see them reasonably ok.

Keep in mind their swag of home ground games , With teh intro of GWs youd expect Geelong to still win 7-8 games even on a bad day , 2013 included.

Id suspect the Sainters to slide further than the Kitty Kats. Time will tell, going to be interesting watching it all fromn the "other" end of the ladder B)

In round 1 next year Geelong will field a side with 10 players over the age of 30.

These players retirement is imminent and will leave the cats with a massive hole to fill.

Their fate will resemble that of Brisbane, Adelaide and now st kilda.

Let's hope they smash the pies next week because the coming years won't be so pretty.

Good luck chris Scott because you will need it.

I heard this same noise after last years Preliminary loss

I seriously doubt this will be the case, they will slide however bottom 4 - No way

Probably best we focus on our own side & work towards completeing our list.

do they have any father-sons in the pipelline?

Bews is the only 1 afaik.

Maybe out of the 8, but bottom 4 won't happen in 2 years.

People said they wouldnt make top 4 this year after departures, they wont disintegrate as quickly as saints or brisbane etc, their list actually has a few young stars as mentioned plus the gazza picks. They wont stay this dominant but they wont be shite

Geelong will still be strong finalists next year. Some qualityyoung and middle aged players, plus they are obviously good at recruiting and should fill the gaps fairly quickly. As well as this they have something which is very hard to come by - an extremely strong winning culture, so no way will they finish near the bottom 4.

It will be interesting to see how Geelong go compared to WCE. WCE have a core team of 30+ players in Cox (30), Embley (30) and Glass (30). I would also think that Kerr (28) and Lynch (28) would not have too many season in them as well.

Geelong sliding is inevitable - our competition is built that way by design. Bottom 4 within two years is a stretch though I think - still too many good players on their list for that to happen, although a few of their players will be found out when the side ceases to be superhuman. I think it'll be quite some time before they disappear out of the eight, and I don't think a rebuild without any major time out of the eight (like Sydney) would be out of the question.

Bottom 4?? Kidding yourselves. They are awesome.

Totally disagree with this! They have good young players. A coach with huge drive. A structure that is embroiled on every player on the lists head. I think that in 2013 they may well still finish higher then us unfortunately.

But for the next week GO THE CATTERS

People said they wouldnt make top 4 this year after departures,

Indeed they did. After the departure of Ablett and Thompson IIRC. Some were spruiking the end of an era. He knows who he is. They finished top 2, and defeated the no.1 side twice this year. Little did they know the Cats have a remarkably strong leadership and values at Geelong and they have quite a few good young players making progress in the current line-up and several yet to play including the likes of Smedts and Horlin-Smith who are learning about these values and what it takes.

Now the OP'er is signalling bottom 4 in two years time. Mind boggling.

I'm a Cats fan for the next week.

Go Cats!!?

In round 1 next year Geelong will field a side with 10 players over the age of 30.

These players retirement is imminent and will leave the cats with a massive hole to fill.

Their fate will resemble that of Brisbane, Adelaide and now st kilda.

Let's hope they smash the pies next week because the coming years won't be so pretty.

Good luck chris Scott because you will need it.

don't know about bottom four but they will go down and be middle of the road

Bottom 4?? Kidding yourselves. They are awesome.

Agreed. Silly Thread!

Yeah-nah.

They are about to win a flag .

The bottom four in two years will be GWS ,Dogs,Port ,Crows.

All born 1994 or later (ie. will be still going strong in 2013)

FB: Lonergan

HB: Mackie Taylor T. Hunt

C: Selwood Varcoe

HF: Hawkins

FF:Stokes Brown Menzel

R: Vardy Christensen Duncan

Int: West

That's a great spine of a side, probably better than bottom 4 already. Plus Motlop, Simpson, Guthrie, Smedts, Horlin-Smith are all highly rated and have barely been seen.

The main problem is the guys born between 85 and 87. The have Harry Taylor and west and that's it. So they'll dip down over the next few years until the youngsters take them up. They'll be like West Coast over the last few years. The question will be how low they dip and even if it's bottom 4 it won't be for a long time.

hmmm 1994.. Thats younger then GWS