General Manager of Football, Andrew Mackie spoke to Cats Media at GMHBA Stadium on Wednesday.

Here are the key takeaways from the interview, presented by Pepperstone.

Mackie on the List Progression in 2023

I found it was a really progressive year for the club. 

On the back of that, our lack of availability at times throughout the year meant that we were able to get games into some guys, which maybe we wouldn't have been able to do in other seasons. 

There was a silver lining in that, I felt that we have seen some really good things out of a large chunk of our young group. 

We saw Oisin Mullin come in, Tanner Bruhn did his thing in the midfield, Ollie Henry kicked 41 goals and Max Holmes continued to do his thing. 

Mitch Knevitt and Ollie Dempsey were able to play some good footy, then at the end of the year we were able to drip feed Toby Conway into the team which was really exciting for us.

I think we saw a snapshot of what our future could look like, and I think it is a really exciting period for those guys. 

We need to make sure from here that the development set up around them is at a level which means we can get the best out of them. 

Once again we will get some new talent in to add onto these guys, which going forward is going to hold us in really good stead."

Mackie on the Off Season Focus Heading Into 2024

We did some things last year which is part of the regeneration of our list, being really aware of where we are at with some older guys coming out over the past couple of years.

Part of that we attended to last year, which meant we didn't have to be as busy in this period. 

We are really excited about seventh pick which we currently hold, also excited about what the back of the draft might look like and we have a few list spots free there. 

We are open to all opportunities; we have options which we can work through in the next little period, focusing on getting some young talent in as we have started to do in the last couple of years.

We have a large group of players under 23 years old and hopefully we put the right support around them, as they come through together it's going to be a really exciting time. 

The next period we will work through what really works for us, there are plenty of options. 

Mackie on out of contract Premiership players Tom Hawkins, Rhys Stanley, Zach Tuohy and Gary Rohan...

Contract talks are progressing well, those not signed yet have a big role to play for us going forward. 

We talked about the young core, we also have a really good group of middle tier players that have come a long way and we need to make sure we continue their development. 

Further to that is this bunch of guys who sit above that, who are still so crucial to what we will do in 2024 in different capacities.  

We don't need to rely on them every single week, the coaches will work out what that looks like but to those individuals, their best is still really good footy. 

That's what we want to focus on getting out of them, because we know that helps us win games. 

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW