As Geelong's Team of the Country, put together by Cats fan and AFL historian Col Hutchinson, has shown, many of the finest players to wear the hoops have come from outside the capital cities.

In the lead-up to the Powercor Country Festival game against Essendon on Saturday night at the MCG, Hutchinson has produced another nugget of gold by working out what percentage of Geelong's players have come from regional Australia.

The number was revealed by Cats chief executive Brian Cook at a press conference held at a Powercor depot in Richmond on Wednesday afternoon.

"85 per cent of our players are from regional areas of Australia. It's unbelievable," Cook said.

"We've had 800 players from country Victoria out of a total of 1066 players who have played senior footy for us since [we joined the VFL in] 1897.

"It shows that we rely and depend upon country talent for our survival, for our history, and for our three premierships over the last 10 years.

"It's something that we're really, really proud of.

"We are proud of all of those small towns and those small communities around Victoria and around Australia that have been incubators for legends and champions of our game."

It is perhaps no surprise that so many boys from the bush have played for the Cats.

After all, Geelong is the only AFL club based outside the capital cities.

"We believe we represent the Geelong region, country Victoria, and we also believe we probably represent rural Australia from an AFL point of view," Cook said.

"In fact, our membership backs that up. We have more members that live in the country than any other AFL club."