Can you remember heading into a recent AFL season as a Cats supporter and having so many unknowns?

 

Not since Geelong faced up to St Kilda in round one of 2011 have supporters had so many questions waiting to be answered.

 

Back then; there wasn’t a lot of optimism as to the Cats future fortunes.

 

The Cats had been emphatically dispatched from the 2010 finals by a Collingwood side, which many said would become a dynasty.

 

The Cat who stood up in the demoralising preliminary final defeat more so than any of his teammates, Gary Ablett Jnr, departed soon after the season finished for the bright lights of the Gold Coast.

 

The man who had led the Cats to the 2007 and 2009 premierships, Mark “Bomber” Thompson, would, perhaps by the laws of nature, return to his namesake Essendon.

 

Gone were premiership staples such as Ablett and Max Rooke by October of 2010 and premiership captain Tom Harley only a year earlier.

 

Geelong supporters would have been forgiven for going along with the much offered mantra of the Cats being too old and too slow to compete with the up and coming sides.

 

The inevitable drop down the ladder, that many said MUST happen, after the Cats period of success was upon Geelong in 2011 apparently.

 

That round one clash with the Saints was in some ways an indicator of the Cats season ahead.

 

The Cats side minus Rooke and Ablett instead looked to the future generation for its fight.

 

First-gamer Cameron Guthrie was initiated with a baptism of fire, starting against some of the games best small forwards.

 

Mitch Duncan and Daniel Menzel, both of whom had played very few games to that point, were thrust into the thick of it.

 

All excelled.

 

But it wasn’t just the kids. Players with multiple premierships under their belt weren’t done with yet either.

 

They had something to prove. They were humiliated by the Pies just six months earlier and now had the chance to prove actions speak louder than words.

 

The 2011 season was a special one. Gutsy interstate wins over Fremantle and Sydney early on set the tone. Thrashings of Melbourne and Gold Coast brought back the fear for the opposition. Beating the Pies twice in the season eased the torment. A little.

 

But it was the 2011 finals series that will be remembered most.

 

Hawthorn, for so long a thorn in the Cats side was dispatched easily and emphatically in week one, the Eagles even more so a fortnight later. Which led to the team whose resounding triumph over the Cats 12 months prior, the Pies, set in motion this resolve.

 

On that amazing day in October we witnessed an amazing side that brought together the past and the future.

 

Whilst Jimmy Bartel, Brad Ottens and Paul Chapman were proving why they were all-time legends, Tom Hawkins, Mitch Duncan and Allen Christensen were showing that it wasn’t just the All Australians you had to worry about.

 

A Geelong side driven by redemption, strengthened by experience and supported by youthful exuberance did what it needed to do and claimed the 2011 premiership cup.

 

So why are these memories flooding back?

 

Because the parallels between 2011 and 2015 cannot be ignored.

 

Once again the Cats will be relying on some familiar names to bring their unquestionable skill and fight to the game.

 

They will need these youth who have shown so much promise to step up and take this team for themselves.

 

And, they’ll be doing this on the back of a painful September the year before and to the tune of those who say ‘enough’s enough’ and hope the Cats tumble down the ladder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some will be going into 2015 season just as pessimistic of the Cats chances as they were in March, 2011.

 

And that’s ok. Questions have and should be asked.

 

But there is something tantalising about this side and this season.

 

Can the Cats win a tenth VFL/AFL premiership and their fourth in nine years?

 

Absolutely.

 

Will they?

 

Let’s find out…