Assistant coach Corey Enright has expressed his eagerness to work with the fresh faces integrating themselves into the Geelong forward group.
The Cats added noted-goalkicker Josh Jenkins on the final day of the trade period in 2019, while also drafting forwards Francis Evans, Cameron Taheny and Brad Close through the national and rookie drafts.
Jenkins has kicked just above two goals per game across his 147-game career, including five consecutive years in excess of 40 goals from 2014 to 2018.
Enright is keen to see how he can partner Tom Hawkins in attack.
“(Hawkins and Jenkins) are well-experienced so no doubt they’ll be teaching each other some tricks hopefully,” he says.
“Josh coming in has been really good. He’s well-experienced and he’s a big mobile player and we’re excited about what he’s going to bring to our group.
“He’s pretty smart with his footy knowledge so he coaches the guys pretty well. It’s always good to see the big players go against the big players and coach them on body positioning.”
The Cats recent draft hand means there are plenty of young Cats ready to learn off the wise heads up forward in Geelong.
Francis Evans joined the Cats with pick 41 as a Stephen Wells special from Brunswick Football Club, plying his trade as a mid-sized forward at senior level.
Cameron Taheny followed soon after as the Cats traded up to select the South Australian medium-forward with selection 50, while the 181cm and 21-year-old Brad Close got his chance in the rookie draft.
“It’s nice to bring some fresh faces in and those guys have spent a lot of their junior careers as forwards so it’s nice to be able to bring them into the group,” Enright says.
“When you bring someone in, they always bring something new and all those guys have shown that they’ve got talent coming through so it’s just about them trying to work into our system and with our players.
“They’re all showing really good promise and from my point of view it’s really exciting.
“Those younger guys are probably going to take a bit more time and we’d like to see them in the VFL probably first, but hopefully one or two of them get their chance.”
