Prior to last season, an AFL-listed Cat hadn’t won the club’s VFL Best and Fairest since 2014.
For Sam Simpson the prize was a double-edged sword, it meant that he was playing good footy, yet also not seeing action in the senior side.
His skipper Joel Selwood recognises the performances the 21-year-old Cat was producing at state league level, despite a frustrating year at the selection table.
“It speaks the character of the kid that he can keep backing up great performances in the VFL,” Selwood says.
“Simmo probably deserved more opportunity in 2019, it was just our list was so healthy at the time that he found it tough to get in the side.”
Selwood doesn’t have doubts that the young Cat has the skills required to make things work at the top level of the sport.
“Sammy’s an AFL player. He was the level above and got caught in between last year so there’s going to be plenty of opportunities I reckon in 2020,” he says.
“He does have that silk nature about him, ducking and weaving through traffic. Huge work ethic up and down the ground that those high half forwards and wingers need.”
“He’s still got quite a light frame but another pre-season under the belt definitely won’t hurt him and he works hard enough to get the best out of himself, so he’ll be fine.”
Vice-captain Patrick Dangerfield is singing from the same hymn book when it comes to Simpson’s skillset.
“He plays with an AFL intensity, he’s really improved his kick, he’s really calm and controlled under pressure which I think you need to be if you’re going to play in that area of the ground,” Dangerfield says.
“He’s just so hard to tackle and so elusive. I think he’s started to get real confidence in his game. I think once you start to get that confidence then you get yourself in better positions to execute and run a little bit further with the ball.
“You can see that he’s growing with every session and that he definitely belongs at the level and can contribute and play a lot of AFL footy.
“I think we’re going to see a lot more AFL footy from him this year.”
