Geelong can kick on and win the Premiership!

After years and years of heartache, Geelong fans could be forgiven for thinking that September glory is nothing but a pipe dream. However, Paul Johnson insists it is a genuine possibility in 2006.

It seems everyone is writing off the Geelong Cats chances of taking out the 2006 AFL Premiership, but why?

That’s right Kent Kingsley according to most people is not a big enough star forward, and the back up is allegedly not great. This season the Cats may prove the doubters wrong.

The team has a midfield most teams would die for, a backline that is rock solid and a sense that this may very well be the year of the cat.

In winning the NAB Cup this pre-season the young cats have shown maturity and growth, and more importantly have shown that they may be better for the experience of capitulating to the Swans in an abhorrent last quarter of last years semi-final.

Think about it. If Nick Davis does not have the luckiest swing of a boot seen in many many years then the Cats may well have been the reigning premiers.

Everyone seems to be talking up the chances of teams like St Kilda and Adelaide, and discounting Geelong, and while I agree that pre-season tournaments count for little in September, the confidence the Geelong side will have gained from that win will be invaluable.

The Cats have some great players at their disposal and their defensive line up is one of the best in the league with Matthew Scarlett, Tom Harley and Josh Hunt they have a very strong wall of full backs who are able to do the job on any forwards in the competition, and while Harley and Scarlett have both been All Australians it is Hunt and his prodigious kicking talent that can really be useful.

Throw Darren Milburn in at centre half back and the Cats get lots of drive and skill out of their backline, Milburn is a great go to player, he can take a mark, defend resolutely, tackle and run the ball out of the backline and end up kicking a goal at the other end. He is one of the most under rated players in the competition, and if people could just forget that he knocked Steve Silvagni out cold one day they might just see it.

The Cats have a dream mid field with youngsters like Gary Ablett Junior, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Corey Enright and Cameron Ling complementing the experience of Peter Riccardi and skipper Steven King.

King is the key to the Cats when he is fit and well they look great, without him they lose a lot of skill in the ruck and a great deal of easy ball. If Steven King stays fit he may be up for all Australian honours as he is one of the best in the game.

Now to address the big question can the Cats kick goals?

Pundits have been claiming the Cats will not win the Premiership due to their perceived inability to kick a big score and their lack of a star forward.

But what makes a star forward, the answer usually is a player who can be relied upon to kick a bag of goals almost every game, and we have not seen a consistent one of those since Lockett, Ablett Sr and Dunstall retired.

The Swans won the premiership last year and like the Cats they are a great team not a team of great players. Barry Hall can be imposing but big bad bustling Barry can also go missing on many an occasion.

Kent Kingsley will always kick a few goals but he lacks true star quality and can be shaky on the set shot, but with back up in the form of Brad Ottens who still can be the star he was, Nathan Ablett is a star on the rise and is touted to be even better than Gary Jr, Steve Johnson can be pure magic and gives the Geelong forward line a speedy star, Paul Chapman has been known to kick a few and Matthew McCarthy and Henry Playfair have shown enough talent to show if they can play at a high level every game they can be trouble.

Make no mistake these Cats are Kittens no more and they will play hard.

They are a team with a tremendous mix of talent and experience, and they are not stuck with the stigma of Geelong teams gone by, they have won some silverware now and can claim more.

Just wait and see, the forward line can kick a big score, they have all the talent in the world and they just might start to use it.

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