The most compelling statistic to prove just how dominant they were over the rest was their whopping percentage of 153. Sydney had 120%, Port Adelaide 114%, Hawthorn 113%, West Coast 112% and Adelaide 110%. No team came within a bull’s roar of the Cats.
Geelong’s attacking brand of fast play-on football saw it average 116 points a game. Better still, with a dominant midfield, led by Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel and best and fairest winner Gary Ablett, the ball was kept out of the Cats’ stingy defence to such an extent that, on average, only 76 points per game were kicked against the premiers.
So with the celebrations and a summer of contentment over, the question now is, can the Cats stay ahead of the pack? I think they can. On and off field they are a grounded group.
Chairman Frank Costa, CEO Brian Cook and coach Mark Thompson have been together for a long time.
It took them eight years to build a premiership side. The foundation is strong. The confidence the players gained from triumphing on grand final day will give enormous self belief.
Now they have had a taste, they will realise that two flags beats one and three beats two, just as Michael Voss and his mates up north realised at the turn of the century.
A great sign from the outside has been the class and composure the players have shown post premiership. They are proud and appreciative but you sense that there is unfinished business to attend to.
Most importantly, none of the players appear to be on their last legs. This is a team that can improve.
With a higher training intensity, Gary Ablett developed a strong engine that enabled him to run all day in the midfield, rather than play in short bursts from a forward flank as he had done the previous five years.
Steve Johnson and James Kelly arrived big time in 2007, but it took a lot of heartache for the penny to finally drop. Cameron Ling eventually understood what his role has to be – to tag not freewheel. And Cam Mooney pulled his head in to be disciplined, hard at the football, not the man and, ultimately, proud to be his team’s best forward.
Brad Ottens is a nice man with a nice nature, but he had looked as though he wasn’t prepared to commit to be the fittest he could be.
He did last year and is now a respected premiership player. Tom Harley was super as a captain, proving you don’t have to be a top 10 player to be an inspiring team-oriented leader.
The two losses to the team can be covered. Steven King’s ruck role will be picked up by Mark Blake, who did most of the rucking anyway in 2007.
Nathan Ablett was the one weak link in the Cats’ line-up and, while he ponders his future, Tom Hawkins, looking lean and hungry, will more than fill the younger Ablett’s shoes.
By my reckoning, half of this team’s regulars will start the season with fewer than 100 senior games to their credit. So the likes of Blake, Andrew Mackie, Matthew Stokes and Joel Selwood can only get better.
Over the next three seasons, Ablett, Bartel, Paul Chapman, Steve Johnson, Joel Corey and Corey Enright will play the best football of their careers.
And the older players have plenty left in the tank too. The 28 plus-ers are Matthew Scarlett, Ottens, Darren Milburn, Mooney and Harley. All five had fine seasons and will be desperate for more silverware before the boots are finally hung up.
So, yes, the Cats are in very good shape for back-to-back honours. Their biggest worry is not themselves but who among the opposition can lift their act to challenge.
I sense a big lift in fitness, confidence, team cohesion and results will come from St Kilda, Fremantle and Hawthorn.
Ross Lyon learnt a lot in his first season at St Kilda. He took on a team that was a long way down in base fitness and in accountability.
Massive off-field changes have been made to correct the fitness problems. Even though the Saints missed last year’s finals, they were the third-best performed team in the second half of the season. They were starting to get their systems and strategies into place.
Lack of a quality ruckman has hurt this team in recent years. The acquisition of Steven King fresh from a premiership success and a finally fit Michael Gardiner looking the goods should have Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo and Robert Harvey licking their lips in anticipation.
Fraser Gehrig’s return from brief retirement will ease the load on Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke and if Brendon Goddard and Matt Maguire can return to defence after serious leg injuries then it is realistic to see the Saints challenge big time.
For Fremantle, it is time to deliver. They were the flops of 2007. Promise plenty but deliver little, do the purple haze. With one of the oldest, most experienced lists and boasting several premiership players from other clubs, it is time they got fair dinkum and delivered the goods.
For years, the tail has wagged the dog at Freo and it is hoped that new coach Mark Harvey can establish the discipline and commitment required to have a full-scale tilt at a premiership.
It is probably a year or two too early for Hawthorn to take the title, but they are on track to do something special. I like their resolve and hardness.
Leaders Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell never flinch. All players know that the team comes way ahead of individual honours and the big plus is that the Hawthorn forward line looms as the most lethal in the game.
Three tall athletic quality forwards lead the way and Lance Franklin, Tim Boyle and Jarryd Roughhead are only going to get better.
Throw in a fit Mark Williams, who played just the four games in 2007, a born-again Stuart Dew and an at-times up forward Hodge and all of a sudden you have a forward mix that will cause opposition defences nightmares.
A couple of wildcards are Collingwood and West Coast. The jury is out on both.
The Pies were terrific last season, but Nathan Buckley is no longer at the club, Anthony Rocca is hit or miss, Alan Didak is unpredictable and the toughest of them all and 2008 captain, Scott Burns, will turn 34 later this year.
The young Magpies, led by Travis Cloke, Scott Pendlebury and Heath Shaw, are exciting talent and look very much like September footballers.
As for West Coast, can it be one of the country’s best teams without Chris Judd and Ben Cousins? The answer is yes. Judd will be sorely missed, but young midfielders in Matt Priddis, Matt Rosa and Adam Selwood will step up.
As for Cousins, his on-field plusses were well and truly negated by his off-field minuses. You sense that new leaders in Darren Glass, Tyson Stenglein and Ashley Hansen will be keen to wipe the slate clean and start a new era out west.
