Cats must find killer touch

As we head toward September, Sebastian Hassett wonders whether Geelong can live up to their much-hyped potential.

Geelong – as a club, town or people – is pretty easy to pigeonhole. The stigma of a region beset by economic turmoil in the past 20 years has not been shaken, and even without meaning to, Melbournians subconsciously look down the highway with derision.

Geelong Football Club president Frank Costa summed it up succinctly when he said that to Geelong people, Melbourne is next door. To their city cousins, Geelong is a rural outpost. The football club, to many people, suffers from the same fate. Out of sight, out of mind.

It’s a mentality that drives the Cattery insane. Right now, they are convinced they have the best team in the competition – and are furious that many people still can’t rate them.

They are outraged that the football world considers St Kilda superior. They hate the way James Kelly, Gary Ablett and James Bartel are not feted in the way Luke Ball, Nick Riewoldt and Nick Dal Santo are. They hate the way the media lingers on every superfluous adjective that Grant Thomas ejects. They hate the fact that now things are right, somebody else has the spotlight.

If you’ve been around a Cats fan over the past twelve or so months, you’ll know what I’m talking about. They are convinced that the football gods have aligned in unison above Skilled Stadium and are ready to adorn the town with glories not seen since Doug Wade was a fixture at full forward. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that Wade now has a stand ready to be named after him.

There’s no doubt Geelong is still a world away from the bright lights of the city – but they do have one thing right. They have a damn good football team, one that is capable of pushing for a top four birth. And nobody can take that away.

After finishing fourth last year, and going within a few kicks of a spot in the Grand Final, the Cats have shown they are more than a decent team. But are they truly capable of taking that extra step? On Sunday, they showed they lacked the killer instinct against a depleted Brisbane outfit who has already coughed up five matches at home.

If anything, they lacked the one thing that Brisbane had. A match winner. Not every team has one as good as Jason Akermanis or, more pertinently, Jonathan Brown, but the Cats are seriously short of a player who can take the game by the scruff of the neck and change its outcome. Paul Chapman stakes a valid claim, but the critics know he’s a glorified foot solider. Ditto Gary Ablett. Unnervingly for Cat fans, Brad Ottens is as close as they’ve got.

The ex-Tiger hasn’t necessarily had a bad season; in fact, after an indifferent early campaign and injuries later on, some might say he’s found some form. It’s been a heck of a lot more effective then what he’s done at Punt Road in recent years, but it’s still not enough. Big men win matches – especially in the crunch period.

A forward target that kicks goals on a regular basis is modern football’s X-factor. Essendon has participated in September in recent years based solely around the fact that Matthew Lloyd can mark a ball in the forward 50m. The Western Bulldogs would be certain finalists if they had a big man in the goal square. West Coast’s big men finding form has coincided with their early season invincibility.

It’s just fifteen years ago that everyone had a spearhead who was capable of a 70-goal season. Today, a total around that figure puts you in with an outside chance for the Coleman Medal, and without a dominant forward, Geelong might only be an outside chance for the flag. Sadly for coach Mark Thompson, Ottens strikes fear into no one. Except Cat fans.

And the “leave him alone” comments did him no favors, either. It made Ottens look like a child who needed defending from the school jock after a few jovial remarks. It made Thompson look like the overprotective parent who stormed into the principal’s office to complain. Brad Ottens, the man, should have been left to let his ability do the talking.

The recruitment of Ottens was to fulfill what many seemed a destiny; Mick Malthouse’s ‘premiership clock’ has come into vogue in recent years, and there’s no doubt that Geelong are in the 11-to-1 zone. In all fairness, if every team plays to their potential, the Cats are not a premiership team. West Coast and St Kilda, at full strength, are better. A confidence-packed Melbourne is potentially the best.

But if you were to play one of the four teams on one of their so-called ‘bad’ days, you’d want to avoid the Cats. Even at their worst, they’ll rarely get smashed – despite Sunday’s drubbing. While this surely plays into their favour for now, the pressure cooker of September will determine whether they’ve got that killer touch.

Maybe only then will the big smoke take notice of their country cousins.

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