Going into 2013, Smedts is feeling confident and is itching for the season to begin.
‘’Obviously I’m really looking forward to it, last year I suppose was my debut season because I missed my very first year with hip injuries,’’ Smedts told Cats TV.
‘’I’ve experienced the high and lows of AFL footy and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into 2013, learning from my experiences from 2012.’’
Coming into his third season at the club Smedts wants to show senior coach, Chris Scott, that he can play with confidence and collaborate well within the team.
‘’To me it’s just about playing with confidence this year really, taking the game on and as a team we just need to stick together, we’ve got to go all as one this year.’’
This year Smedts believes the team to watch out for will be Essendon, especially if they can emulate their performance from early last year.
‘’Maybe Essenden, I suppose they started the season really well last year and then they got struck with injury, if they can keep fit they might look pretty dangerous as well.’’
According to Smedts the club’s predecessors have created a sound foundation, and the younger boys have made a concerted effort to learn as much as they can from the older boys before they hang up their boots.
‘’I suppose those veterans left as in good stead, they’ve been so successful in the past couple of years, we’ve learnt a lot from them,’’ Smedts said.
‘’We knew last year that they weren’t going to be around forever, so we picked their brains and took as much off them as we could.’’
Smedts goes on to explain how difficult it was being struck with injury and restricted to the sideline at such a young age. All he wanted to do was hit the track and begin his career as an AFL footballer.
‘’Yeah it was tough, because all I wanted to do was play footy every week, also I’ve still got a pretty immature body, I’m still pretty young and pretty light.’’
Even though Smedts is going into his third year here at the club, he refers to 2012 as his first, after missing his entire rookie season in 2011.
‘’It was my first full preseason and season that I’ve played in to two or three years,’’ Smedts said.
‘’It was frustrating, it was up and down, it was a bit of a yo-yo season.’’
‘’I struggled a bit when I was getting dropped and hit with a couple of niggling injuries.
‘’I just spent a lot of time with a few of the older blokes and just really listened to what they had to say about their past experiences and tried to learn from what they did, and where they went wrong as well.’’
Smedts started his debut down back where he was able to nestle in and gain some valuable experience in defense, before being moved to the front.
‘’Well I started the first half of the season down back, I got a few good experiences from there and moved forward after I got dropped,’’ Smedts said.
‘’I played alright down there, but eventually I’d like to be in the midfield but I think for 2013 I’m going to be more of a forward this year, hopefully I can kick a couple of goals.’’
The return of Travis Varcoe in the preseason has excited the likes of Smedts, and he can’t wait to see what Daniel Menzel and Nathan Vardy can do for the club once they reclaim their spot back in the side.
‘’I reckon those three are going to be massive for us, as a group going forward,’’ Smedts said.
‘’I haven’t seen a big man move like Vards, very athletic, and Menz just has that X-factor about him, if we can get him right he’ll do some good stuff for this club, and we all know what Travi is capable of doing, I think he is going to be a very exciting player.’’
In conjunction with their return, Smedts has also enjoyed the arrival of Geelong’s three new recruits. Melbourne’s Jared Rivers, North Melbourne’s Hamish McIntosh, and youngster Josh Caddy, who was plucked from the Gold Coast Suns.
‘’Definitely brought a fresh couple of faces to the club, it’s interesting to hear when they compare Geelong to Gold Coast, to North Melbourne (etc)… just how different we do things,” Smedts explained.
“I think we’re in a great spot this year.”
