Football is back and so are the Cats for the 2024 AFL season.

As the club continues to ramp up preparations with round one looming, we take a look at the year ahead in a three part Cats season preview.

Part three looks into some of the potential milestones that are well within reach in 2024, with key numbers to keep an eye on as the Cats play throughout the year.

01:05

Match Sim Highlights | AFL Pre Season

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Milestones | Games

Geelong has an extensive list of potential milestones to keep an eye on this year starting with Tom Hawkins, who needs just nine more appearances to break Geelong’s all time games record.

The big Hawk needs just three more matches to reach his 350 game milestone, with Joel Selwood’s 355 game club record well within reach in the first half of the season.

The first milestone likely to fall in 2024 will be the vice captain, Tom Stewart who is set to reach his 150th game early in the season.

Stewart (148 games played), Mark Blicavs (246), Rhys Stanley (196) and Gary Rohan (192) are all likely to reach big milestones in the first half of the 2024 season.

Cam Guthrie currently sits on 236 games played and will be a good chance to reach his 250 game milestone a little later in the season, while Jeremy Cameron needs 20 more appearances to reach his 250 game milestone.

Zach Guthrie and Brad Close are the other two players to watch, with both closing in on their 100 game milestone but they will need to play a full season to reach it in 2024.  

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Milestones | Stats

Goals

With the Geelong games record well within reach, Tom Hawkins (781 goals) could also leap as high as 11th overall on the VFL-AFL goalkicking tally.

Currently sitting in 14th on the all time list, Hawkins can pass Jack Riewoldt, Matthew Richardson, and Bernie Quinlan if he can kick 37 goals or more in 2023.

Hawkins hasn’t kicked less than 37 goals in a season since 2011, just his fifth year with the Cats (he kicked 22 goals in the final nine games). 

Jeremy Cameron (584) is set to cross the 600 goal barrier, while sitting just 50 goals outside of the top 30 on the all time goal kicking list. 

Cameron has booted 157 goals from 59 games at Geelong, in the three seasons since joining the Cats via trade from GWS. 

02:06

AO Ball Kid Challenge | Geelong Cats Edition

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Clearances & Inside 50s

Patrick Dangerfield has the potential to break the all time VFL-AFL record for both clearances and inside 50s in 2024.

The Cats skipper currently sits fourth on the all time clearance list, but is only 84 clearances away from the record which is currently held by none other than Joel Selwood.

Dangerfield hasn’t recorded less than 84 clearances in a season since 2010, which was just his third AFL season after debuting for Adelaide late in 2008.

The star on-baller also sits third on the all time list for inside 50s, just 61 adrift of the current record held by Brent Harvey.

Similar to his clearance dominance, Dangerfield hasn’t registered less than 60 inside 50s in a season since 2010, recording 85 or more in each of his last 12 seasons.

Expect to see Danger topple both records at some stage in 2024.

Other Interesting Stats

Geelong as a club is just three wins away from 1400 total wins, which would make the Cats just the fourth team in VFL-AFL history to reach the milestone behind Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon.