The ‘silly hysteria’ surrounding Cats called out

DWAYNE Russell isn’t buying into the “silly hysteria” surrounding Geelong that has only heated up throughout the 2022 trade period.

The Cats claimed this year’s premiership less than a fortnight ago with an emphatic 81-point defeat of the Swans after widely being recognised as the best team throughout 2022.

But just weeks later, Chris Scott could have an extra four first-round picks on his list.

Jack Bowes has nominated Geelong in a trade to come with pick 7, while Ollie Henry and Tanner Bruhn have also expressed their desires to be at Kardinia Park in 2023.

It’s seen an outcry over the AFL’s equalisation measures, with Geelong set to vastly improve after its flag-winning season.

But Russell said it’s all based on the result of one game, suggesting there’s a similar comments every year.

“This silly hysteria around Geelong, you’d think they’d won the last three premierships the way people are carrying on about trying to bring them down. They’ve won one flag in 11 years,” the former Cat said.

“What a difference one win makes. If Geelong had lost the grand final every critic would have been laughing saying, ‘we told you so, too old, too slow, why did you recruit Isaac Smith, Chris Scott can’t coach’?

“You know what hysteria we’d be having if Sydney won the flag, Sydney beat Geelong in the grand final? It’d be, ‘we can’t have those academies, we’ve got to get rid of the Swans academies’.”

As Russell notes, it’s a similar outcry to the Demons after their dominant premiership last year. Melbourne won its first 10 games in 2022 before falling in a heap and was knocked out of finals in straight sets.

Since Brisbane’s dynasty in the early 2000s, only two clubs – Hawthorn and Richmond – have won back-to-back flags.

“There’s always hysteria. The hysteria last year was, ‘how are we ever going to beat Melbourne? They’re going to be too good for too long, they’re going to win the next three flags,’” Russell said.

“There’s always hysteria, right now it’s hysteria about Geelong and it’s silly, to me anyway, just because they’ve got smarter people than the clubs down the road and because they’ve got players who would rather work there for less money… than some of the clubs down the road.

“What a difference a win makes. The critics, who would have been laughing at the Cats if they lost the flag are now complaining, ‘they’re too damn good’. So I’m not with this hysteria.”

Henry and Bruhn were both Geelong Falcons before being drafted to Collingwood and GWS respectively, while the Cats were the first club to register an interest in Bowes which led to the Sun’s decision.

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN