After joining Geelong at the end of the 2022 season, Ollie Henry has wasted no time demonstrating his full potential to the Cats faithful in an impressive first year in the blue and white hoops.

Sitting inside the top 25 goal kickers for the season, Henry has booted 30 majors already in 2023 following another two-goal performance against Fremantle on Saturday.

The versatile forward has missed just one game for the Cats this year, kicking multiple goals on 11 occasions while hitting the scoreboard in each of his last 15 matches.  

Geelong Assistant Coach, James Kelly spoke to K rock Football about Henry’s debut season at the Cattery, and the importance of his role to the side.

“I think he has been really good,” Kelly told K rock.

“If you were going to pick up a 21-year-old and he was going to kick you around 40 goals for the year, you would never say that is a bad result.

"We touch on Tanner Bruhn, Max Holmes, Ollie is in that group and Jack Bowes who are all new into our system, I feel like they have all settled in really well.

"In Ollie’s role, you can be a victim of how the team plays and how the ball moves. But in most circumstances, he has always been pretty competitive, he is really agile, and the more time he spends in our system the better he is going to be.

"If he finishes the year around 40 goals, we will certainly be more than happy with his season.”

On top of his consistent impact in front of goal, Henry has also shown plenty of improvement in other facets of the game throughout 2023.

Averaging a career high 11 disposals and four marks per game, the 21-year-old has also spent time on the wing this year as he continues to develop his game.

Chris Scott spoke on Henry and the Cats young core on the weekend, touching on the immediate impact the new players have made at the club in their first year.  

“That’s been one of the upsides for us this year, we have seen quite a lot of new guys to our club like Ollie Henry, Jack Bowes and Tanner Bruhn in significant roles,” Scott said.

“It’s not like we’ve put them in around the edges and asked them to be role players, they have been right in the thick of it and have shown signs that they can be really good players for us.”