Well, it’s hard to know quite what to make of the Cats’ JLT Community Series clash with Adelaide on Sunday.

It was a relatively scrappy affair, which was punctuated by some flashes of brilliance, like Daniel Menzel’s supergoal in the second quarter (watch the goal by clicking on the video player above).

As is the case with most pre-season games, you can’t read much into the scoreboard.

When the Cats had their best team out on the park in the first half, they appeared in control of the contest.

Only poor kicking for goal prevented them from establishing a big lead at the long break.

But after Patrick Dangerfield was sent to the showers at half-time, the game changed dramatically.

Indeed, the third quarter, in which the Crows piled on five unanswered goals, was very disappointing from a Geelong perspective.

The last quarter, however, saw a decent turnaround from the visiting team, and both sides ended up leaving Richmond Oval with some positives and some things to work on.

Among the highlights for the Cats were the performances of Zach Tuohy and Lachie Henderson down back, while George Horlin-Smith put his hand up for a berth in the team to play Freo in round one.

‘Horlo’ demonstrated his ability rack up plenty of the ball in the midfield and even booted a goal.

Youngster Zach Guthrie also caught the eye once again. His poise and courage was on show in a performance that has people wondering if he will be promoted to the senior list before the premiership season starts.

Another similar performance against Essendon in Bendigo this weekend and Guthrie will have one foot in the team to face the Dockers.

His rise shows that while the Cats have lost some big names in the past couple of seasons, the new boys are ready to step up.