Cats fans can expect more of the exciting, attacking brand of football that characterised the club’s 2021 VFLW campaign as Geelong prepares to launch into the new season.

With Round 1 kicking off at Deakin University Elite Sports Precinct this Saturday, the Cats are gearing up for a second season under the coaching of Andrew Bruce.

The second-year Cats coach says the squad has again been working on fast footy over the pre-season, as they look to again push their case for finals.

“We’ll be very similar (to last year),” Bruce said. “We like to move the footy as quickly as we can and have our best opportunity to score.

“We’ll certainly look to do that, encourage our girls to play football and really enjoy it and hopefully kick lots of goals – that way, we’ll probably win more games than we lose.”

In 2021, the Cats finished second on the ladder, and made it all the way to the grand final, which was postponed and eventually cancelled due to Covid restrictions in the second half of the season.

The season was full of plenty of highlights, including setting a Cats VFLW record high score in Round 8, kicking 11.9 (75) against Darebin, only to beat it the next week, kicking 15.9 (99) to defeat the Western Bulldogs by 85 points.

A seven-game winning streak stretched from Round 5 against the Bulldogs to Round 11 against the Saints, where the Cats came from 11 points down with six minutes to play to win, kicking the final four goals of the match.

While the Cats are hoping to emulate the strengths of their 2021 season, Bruce said the focus, first and foremost, is on player development.

“The hopes are that we continue to develop our players and give them the best opportunity to do that,” he said.

“Realistically, we want to win games and get as far into the season as we can, but the important thing is we continue to develop and make a really positive environment for our players to be in, and then everything else comes on top of that.”

Saturday’s game against the Blues kicks off a run of six home games to start the season, with other club’s home venues unavailable due to the crossover with the cricket season.

“It was very similar for us last year – by the time we got our first (away) game, we were really looking forward to it,” Bruce said.

“It’s good (having a run of games at home), it becomes really consistent for us with our match preparation and all that kind of stuff. But we don’t mind where we play. Later in the year, it will be a bit of fun seeing different grounds against different opposition.”

Bree Beckley, who was part of the VFLW Cats 2021 Leadership Group, said the Cats players were excited to get back into games again, with new faces joining the ride this season.

“We’ve had lots of new changes and lots of depth players changing within our squad, so it’s good to have the core group back together and adding to our list,” Beckley said.

“(I) can’t wait to get out there with the girls and play again. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re really excited to get back out there.”

After Geelong and Collingwood were denied the opportunity to battle for the premiership cup due to Covid restrictions impacting community football last year, Beckley said the Cats were eager to be in contention for the cup again this season.

“I think definitely a bit of unfinished business there,” she said. “But as I said, our personnel and everything has changed, so hopefully we can get those girls into it, and hopefully we can use it as motivation to spur us on all the way to making top four or even making the grand final again.”

The start time for Saturday’s game is yet to be confirmed by the league, but Beckley encouraged Cats fans to make their way to Deakin and cheer the team on.

“I think we are very exciting to watch. So I reckon come down, see an exciting brand of football and hopefully we can get a few wins on the board.”