GEELONG defender Harry Taylor is confident Mitch Clark can fit into the Cats' forward line in 2015 and help the club improve after a candid post-season review.
Clark has declared Geelong is his preferred destination as he seeks to reignite his AFL career, leaving the Cats to arrange a trade with Melbourne in the upcoming NAB AFL Trade Period.
After a straight sets exit from this year's finals series, Geelong has undergone a searching review, and more support for key forward Tom Hawkins appears a priority for 2015.
Hawkins led the Cats with 68 goals in 2014, 41 more than Jimmy Bartel, who was ranked No.2 at the club with 27.
Taylor, who has been sent forward through his 159-game career but only kicked two goals in 2014, said Clark would be a valuable acquisition for the Cats.
"He seems like someone who would train really hard and play with that competitive spirit that is important as a Geelong player," Taylor told AFL.com.au.
"We'd be very happy if we could get the deal and he could come to us and play as a forward and maybe a little bit in the ruck. That would really help us.
"It certainly helps 'Hawk' out … he was a bit of a lone figure at stages this season.
"It would also help the younger guys a bit and put pressure on 'Hawk' and Mitch (Brown) to perform better, and that's what we need."
Taylor, who played alongside Clark at WAFL club East Fremantle in 2005, said the Cats had completed a "pretty candid" post-season review and improvement across the board was needed next season.
The club was unsuccessful in its pursuit of free agent James Frawley, who nominated Hawthorn as his destination of choice on Thursday, but Taylor said the Cats were still in a good position ahead of 2015.
"If he chooses not to come to Geelong we'll just keep doing the same things," Taylor said.
"We'll keep training hard, keep improving the younger guys, and make sure everyone pulls their weight and has a paddle when it's their time to go.
"Certainly when you lose the way that we did this year, you make sure you review things really thoroughly.
"We need to demand continual improvement from everyone. We can't just rely on our improvement just to come from our younger guys, the older guys need to get better."
A premiership player with Geelong in 2009 and 2011, Taylor said the Cats’ exit from the finals this season had left him "in a really angry mood" and determined to help the team play better football at the pointy end of next season.
The defender has one more shot at success in 2014 when he represents Australia in a one-off Test at Patersons Stadium on Saturday November 22, fulfilling a dream to represent his country.
The 28-year-old said he was looking forward to working with coaches Alastair Clarkson and Ross Lyon, who lead two of the Cats' fiercest rivals.
"It'll be an interesting dynamic and it'll be great to actually learn how they interact with players," Taylor said.
"That's one thing I'll certainly be taking out of it.
"I always wanted to go to the Olympics and I wanted to represent Australia at something, so to get the chance to do it now is something I'm really looking forward to."
