Cats TV spoke to James Kelly and Scott Gullan on Argue the Toss, about how important it is for a club to come away with a win in the first round.  

Both Kelly and Gullan confirm that starting the season off with a win gives the club a positive foundation to launch from, especially when the victory is against a competitive side like Hawthorn.  

“I think you put quite a lot of emphasis on it from a teams point of view, and also from a personal point of view,” Kelly said.

“You always want to start your year off well and get the ball in your hands, and as a side you want to build some momentum early, especially when you’re playing a good side like Hawthorn.”

“It’s a real test early in the season and to get over the top for us is fantastic.”

“You’re just trying to get as ready as you can, you’ve had the whole preseason to do everything you need to from a physical prep point of view, and coming into round one it’s just making sure you’re really switched on mentally and are ready to go in nice and sharp, which is about all you can do,” Kelly told Cats TV.

Gullan goes on to point out how a club’s round 1 performance can have a significant affect; comparing Western Bulldogs win to Melbourne’s devastating loss.

“I think it is massively important... look at Melbourne, look at where they are, they’re in massive trouble because of their round 1 performance. Look at the Western Bulldogs they’ve been copping it all summer and then they have an amazing win in round 1 and it all goes away,” Gullan said.

“And as for Geelong, they got to the half way mark (last year) where it was always catch up and it hurt them in September.”

Gullan finds it difficult to specify to what extent the Cats positive preseason benefited their performance against the Hawks. Although it was evident to him that Geelong’s leg speed played a major factor when it came to dominating in the second half.     

“Everyone plays hard and I can’t decipher but clearly Geelong had the legs and they thought they would.”

“Hawthorn were a taller team and maybe that was part of it but you see across all games in round 1, one team seems to be able to have the momentum and the legs and they all train hard, so it’s one of those ones I can’t decipher.”