FOR SEVERAL years now, it's been fashionable to declare that Geelong's premiership window has finally slammed shut.
Surely - claim the naysayers - the club that won three flags in a golden five-year period from 2007-11 must now be on the slide.
But each year, the Cats keep contending.
And the decision to take punts on the likes of Mitch Clark and Rhys Stanley strongly suggest Geelong still sees itself very much in the frame to go deep into September yet again in 2015.
Clark shapes as one of the most interesting AFL stories of 2015.
Less than a year ago, the big man had retired from his second club Melbourne after going public about his battle with clinical depression.
But when he had a change of heart on the eve of the trade period, his former Brisbane teammate and current Geelong coach Chris Scott was quick to recall just how impressed he had been with Clark when their paths crossed years ago at the Lions.
A three-way deal was duly done, with Travis Varcoe heading from Geelong to Collingwood and Heretier Lumumba from the Magpies to the Demons.
The other bonus about Clark is that he potentially fills two holes for the Cats - as a back-up ruckman in a following division with several question marks hovering over it and as a much-needed key-forward foil for Tom Hawkins.
"Even though we went into it with an open mind, our thinking was that Mitch would be a forward first and a ruckman second," Scott said.
"But we're not going to be held to that.
"It will depend on a lot of things.
"We have seen him have a virtual All Australian year as a ruckman in Brisbane and on the limited exposed form we saw in Melbourne he showed he could be one of the really good power forwards in the competition as well."
The other new face causing great excitement down Geelong way is speedster Nakia Cockatoo, taken with pick No.10 in the national draft on the recommendation of master recruiter Stephen Wells.
Due to their sustained excellence in the past decade, the Cats had not had a top 10 pick since snaring Joel Selwood in 2006 - and look how well that turned out.
In skipper Selwood, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson, James Kelly, Corey Enright and Andrew Mackie - the Cats can still boast a 'Sensational Six' who played in each of the 2007, 2009 and 2011 flag-winning teams.
Throw in dual premiership heroes such as Hawkins, Harry Taylor and Mathew Stokes and it becomes clear what a brilliant job the club has done in staggering the retirements of their big names while holding onto those who still had plenty to give.
They would love to have held onto Allen Christensen too, but acknowledged for personal reasons the clever midfielder was better off making a fresh start in Brisbane.
"We rate Allen very highly and in some ways I still think of him as a Geelong player," said Scott of Christensen, who found his way to the Lions in exchange for draft pick 21.
"With the compensation, we know how the system works and it's very rarely completely fair.
"We accept that given his personal situation and the desire to respect his wishes we weren't in a strong bargaining position.
"We did have options to handle it in a different way but we didn't think that would be the Geelong way."
The other big off-season departure was football manager Neil Balme, who returned to Collingwood to link up with Nathan Buckley.
But the Cats were able to fill that vacancy seamlessly as well, moving 199-gamer Steve Hocking from commercial operations into the key football department role.
Rejuvenation.
It continues to serve the perennial contenders very well indeed.
GEELONG
Coach: Chris Scott
Captain: Joel Selwood
Last five years: 3-1-7-3-5
Premierships: 9 (1925, 1931, 1937, 1951-52, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011)
Key five: Joel Selwood, Tom Hawkins, Harry Taylor, Jimmy Bartel, Steven Motlop.
One to watch: Mitch Clark. Having reversed his initial decision to retire because of a chronic foot injury and clinical depression issues, Clark looms as a dangerous foil to Tom Hawkins in attack for the Cats or as a fill-in ruckman.
Ins: Sam Blease (Melbourne), Mark Blicavs (Geelong rookie), Mitch Clark (Melbourne), Nakia Cockatoo (NT Thunder NEAFL), Jordan Cunico (Gippsland U18), Cory Gregson (Glenelg SANFL), Dean Gore (Sturt SANFL), Rhys Stanley (St Kilda).
Outs: Mitch Brown (delisted), George Burbury (delisted), Allen Christensen (Brisbane Lions), Joel Hamling (delisted), Taylor Hunt (Richmond), Jordan Schroder (delisted), Jesse Stringer (delisted), Travis Varcoe (Collingwood).
Best line-up:
B: Andrew Mackie, Tom Lonergan, Jared Rivers
HB: Corey Enright, Harry Taylor, James Kelly
C: Mathew Stokes, Steve Johnson, Josh Caddy
HF: Jimmy Bartel, Mitch Clark, Mitch Duncan
F: Jordan Murdoch, Tom Hawkins, Steven Motlop
R: Hamish McIntosh, Joel Selwood, Cameron Guthrie
I: Rhys Stanley, George Horlin-Smith, Billie Smedts, Mark Blicavs
