The VFL Cats have quickly turned their attention to a round-three clash with the Box Hill Hawks, following their loss on the Gold Coast in round two.

The Cats will face the Hawks on Easter Monday at the MCG, in what will be an important early season game for two teams trying to establish themselves as finals contenders.

Geelong are still evenly placed to begin the 2023 VFL season, after they notched their first win against Carlton in round one.

The Cats are looking at the round-two game as a learning curve, with head coach Mark Corrigan noting that there was still factors they could take away from the game.

“We certainly take-away the importance of being really strong in the contest,” he told geelongcats.com.au

“We saw that as a positive against Carlton in round one, but then dropped away against Gold Coast. It’s not that we don’t know how to do it, we just need to be at a higher level and be able to execute for longer.

“There are other things we are working on which we saw in pieces against Gold Coast, such as the ability to move the ball and work together in offense and challenge defences more in that phase.”

Gold Coast fielded 18-players with previous AFL experience on the weekend, making them one of the strongest teams in the VFL competition.

But this also proved to be a valuable learning experience for the Cats younger players, who got to test themselves against a high-quality opposition.

Corrigan said there was plenty his side could learn from the Gold Coast team, and the way their experienced players handled the contest.

“When you play against mature and experienced team, you learn from their ability to be really consistent. But also their connection and leadership on field, and we saw that in spades with Gold Coast,” he said.

“For us, those games give us an opportunity to see where the barometer is at and hopefully our guys take a lot of learning out of that.”

With the Geelong AFL side beginning to regain players from injury, the VFL Cats have benefitted from having a number of AFL-listed players in the team to start the season.

VFL Match Day Guide: Easter Monday

Brandon Parfitt, Sam Simpson and Shannon Neale have all made bright starts to the 2023 season, as they work to earn a recall into the AFL side. Jake Kolodjashnij also slotted into the VFL Cats backline on Sunday, making his first appearance in 2023 after returning from injury.  

Corrigan talked about how important these players have been, setting the standard for the younger players to follow.  

“I thought Parfitt was really strong in a challenging situation on the weekend.

“I thought his pressure around the ball and his ability to be a strong influence and win the ball back in the contest, and then get out of the contest was impressive. He was a real leader all day despite the scoreboard.

“Same with Sam Simpson, he was a bit under the weather but his ability to keep playing was incredible. He is someone who’s compliance is through the roof, with the variety of roles we ask him to play.”

Geelong is fortunate to have a strong core of VFL-Listed players, including a number of fresh faces to bolster the team this season.

Reigning VFL best and fairest winner, Jye Chalcraft has made another bright start in 2023 while young-gun Harry Benson has impressed in his first two games.

Corrigan said continuing the development of these VFL-Listed players is an important role for the coaches, helping to take their game to the next level.

“Jye is a best and fairest winner, so he is clearly a very good VFL player. For us it’s about continuing to build out his game, so for him it’s spending a little bit of time forward,” he said.

“We see how damaging he can be around the ball, but he is very dynamic too so we believe he can be dangerous up forward.

“For Harry, his first two games have been really impressive considering how late he was into the program, still getting to know some of his team-mates out there. Even in the space of the practice matches and the first two games, we’ve seen his progress and how he has familiarised himself with the system and his team-mates.”

Mark Corrigan and the VFL Cats will kick off a big Easter Monday at the MCG, with the first bounce from 11:45am against Box Hill.