By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
The bad news is that Geelong faces the reigning premiers first up after a swag of changes to the side.
The good news is that they won’t meet again for the rest of the season.
Senior Cats figures are pushing the line of a hopeful opening but it will be tinged with uncertainty after the engine room of the side changed by 50 per cent over summer.
Skipper Joel Selwood will be picked after his sterling VFL performance – and he has nominated who he wants to be standing beside him in the centre square for the opening bounce.
Patty Dangerfield, Zac Smith, Josh Caddy and Selwood make a great midfield group on paper but the wariness comes from the intimate understanding that needs to develop between them.
Selwood and Dangerfield have hardly been able to train together let alone play a game so there will be a learning curve for the pair, despite their experience.
At the captains’ day at the MCG, Selwood said he was looking forward to taking on the Hawks because they had “been up there for so long”.
“As a club we respect yet hate them at the same time,” he said.
He shrugged off like a high tackle any suggestion that playing Hawthorn first up added pressure on the new-look Cats.
“The pressure is around that we should perform better than we did last year,” he said.
Selwood said he was wary of the unpredictable forward line Hawthorn could produce with star goal kicker Jarryd Roughhead missing.
Coach Chris Scott is also wary of the reigning premier in the Easter Monday blockbuster expected to be pushing an 80,000 strong crowd.
“I think they’ll be hard to beat. You need everything going for you to beat the Hawks at the moment,” Scott said.
“They’ve lost a couple of players who were important last year but they’re just so good at replacing those guys with young players who seem to be almost as good.
“We’re pretty hopeful that we can put in a good performance on Easter Monday. Right at the moment it’s clear they’re the team to beat.
“We’re really clear that we’re an average team. Our ladder position reflected that last year.
“We think we’ve had a good preparation but the reality is we lost two of our three NAB Cup games so we’re got a lot of work to do to get to where people think we could over the next few years.”
Scott complimented Selwood’s work in getting to the line for the opener.
“He played really well. It wasn’t a complete surprise, although he hasn’t done a lot of the football training throughout the pre-season he has got a fair bit of running in,” Scott said.
“He looked like he hadn’t missed a beat over the pre-season. I think it will be pretty hard to leave him out for round one.”
Scott also welcomed the addition of Smith to bolster an area that has been deficient since Brad Ottens retired.
“Zac, in particular, has been really good for us this pre-season, he’s done all the work,” Scott said.
“To be frank, he was under no illusions that he came into our footy club needing to prove himself and prove that he was in our best 22.
“He hasn’t completely done that yet, but he’s gone a long way towards that.“
