GEELONG coach Mark Thompson says his club remains capable of dominating next season, despite this year's grand final failure against Hawthorn.

The Cats lost only one match for the year before the grand final and Thompson said they had the ability to win as many games in 2009, then cap it with a premiership.

"That's our plan, that's every club's plan, whether we do it or not is another thing," Thompson said ahead of Geelong's first preseason training session yesterday. "You'd think it would be unlikely, but our plan is to win every game of footy we play in and our plan is to provide a better program and be a better team."

The Cats coach said he had reviewed what went wrong in the grand final, but preferred not to dwell on it.

"I'm not really wanting to go too far backwards and look too far into what happened last year, it's about (next) year," he said.

"We had a crack and we got to the grand final, which is exactly what every club aims to do, we didn't win it, so be it. I am over it and I'm looking forward to 2009."

He said just as other clubs had borrowed aspects of the Geelong's game plan over the past two seasons, it was now their turn to become copycats.

"We're going to probably copy a little bit of what Hawthorn do and the competition will copy them," Thompson said.

"It constantly moves and we just have to stay ahead of the trends."

The only missing member of the Cats' squad on the track yesterday was key defender Matthew Egan, who learnt last week his career is almost certainly over because of a foot injury.

But Thompson said the 25-year-old, who was an All Australian in 2007 when he last played, had not entirely given up hope.

"He's going to seek another opinion and see another surgeon and see if there's anything else he can do," the coach said.

Young key forward Tom Hawkins, recovering from a foot stress reaction, and captain Tom Harley, who had minor knee surgery, both participated only briefly.

■ The grand final loss may have put a dampener on their great season on the field but it hasn't stopped the Cats posting a $1.22 million operating profit in 2008. It's the ninth consecutive profit for the 2007 premiers.

Geelong chief executive Brian Cook says revenues increased by 7% from $33.3 million in 2007 to $35.7 million.

The club enjoyed a 22% growth in membership, which totalled a record 36,943, and a 9% rise in reserved seating revenue to $2.93 million. That helped offset the fact that the club did not have a home game at the MCG.

Merchandise sales grew by 43% to $2.47 million.

Football costs increased by 8% to $14.87 million, due largely to increased costs in player payment, coaching, staffing and recruiting.

AAP