Geelong will back its own game style in against North Melbourne Tasmania Kangaroos as the Cats look to start 2022 with a clean slate, according to captain Meghan McDonald.

The Cats were humbled in their Round 1 clash with the Roos last year, but confidence after a big pre-season and successful practice match has the team optimistic heading into their season-opener.

“What North Melbourne were able to do – which good sides do – last year is [made it so] we didn’t look or play like ourselves or how we planned to. I think the focus going in this week is we stick to what we know works, and we do that no matter what,” McDonald said.

“This is a cliché, but you go into a practice game and you say, ‘This one is about us, this is about executing our game style’. But the messaging has been largely the same this week, and will be when we do our oppo stuff on Thursday.

“We know that our game style and those things that I spoke about basing it around – effort, grit and intensity – will challenge any team.”

While the returning cohort of Cats players will be keen to show how far they’ve come from last season, for nine new Cats, their journey in the Hoops is all before them.

Established AFLW players Chloe Scheer (Adelaide) and Chantel Emonson (Melbourne), VFLW mature-age recruits Claudia Gunjaca and Liv Fuller, draftees Georgie Prespakis, Zali Friswell (both Calder Cannons), Gabbi Featherston (Geelong Falcons) and Annabel Johnson (Geelong VFLW) and Gaelic star Rachel Kearns are all making their mark on the Cats Women’s program.

Kate Darby has also made her way back to the primary list as a replacement for Renee Garing, who is expecting her first child in mid-2022.

“The beauty of having so many new players is that they don’t have that shared (thought) ‘2021 was no good’ in the back of their minds,” McDonald said.

“That’s what we’ve got to embrace. They’re so enthusiastic and fresh, and they want to learn so much, and they want to show what they’ve got.

“They want to earn the respect of their teammates and earn their spot in the team, and we should all be doing that, week-in, week-out. We should all be going out there to earn the trust of the player next to [us], and that’s what they want to do, and I think we’ve learnt from them.

“You do that by putting in the hard work and committing to improving all the time.”

McDonald said, as well as the renewed hunger for opportunity they’ve brought, the newest Cats have been wonderful additions to the group on a personal level.

“I know the club deliberately searched for people with wonderful character, and all nine of them have that,” she said.

“I see that in the way they train, but also in the investment they have in the relationships they’re building in the team and the club itself.

“I can’t speak highly enough of those nine girls, and also the way that the existing playing group has embraced that and got on board and run with it.

“I’m excited to see many of them play this weekend – I’m sure many more will play throughout the season because they’re really integral to how we’re going to go forward.”

Prespakis, who was the Cats’ first pick at the draft – and the first pick overall in the Victorian draft pool (No.2 nationally) – has already captured the attention of the footy public off the back of her NAB League Girls’ best and fairest season and her iconic commitment to wearing long-sleeved guernseys.

On Tuesday morning, the AFLW captains overwhelming voted for her as the most likely to win the league’s rising star award, with 10 of the 14 captains selecting the midfielder.

However, McDonald was confident Prespakis would take any external expectation in her stride.

“She is a very cool cat – very calm, works hard, takes things as they come, and is very comfortable in herself and her ability,” McDonald said.

“But whether it’s speaking to Georgie, or Nina (Morrison), or any one of the team, the anxiety, I think, is more about wanting the team to execute; it’s not so much based around individual performances.

“I don’t think (Prespakis) will have heard that she’s the great hope or anything like that – I think she just wants to play good footy, and for us to play good footy.”

Geelong kicks off its AFLW season against North Melbourne this Saturday at Arden Street from 5.10pm.