Geelong boss on three emerging young Cats

GEELONG will look to contend once again in 2022, but also have a focus on the future.

Cats CEO Steve Hocking highlighted three youngsters who are emerging after solid pre-seasons.

Max Holmes, Zach Guthrie and Sam De Koning, who have played a combined total of 46 AFL games, could be set to play more prominent roles this year.

“We’ve had a really strong pre-season. I know must clubs say that at this time of year, we genuinely have,” Hocking told SEN’s Whateley.

“You have a look at last year where we had so many top-end players that we didn’t have access to across the season, that became very difficult to manage over the entire year.

“I think our group is definitely fitter and we’ve also got players like Max Holmes, Zach Guthrie and Sam De Koning – they’re all emerging as well. They’ve had really good pre-seasons.

“We saw them play against Gold Coast on Monday night and we saw a lot of new faces. A lot of those young players haven’t played over the last couple of years, so it’s been really good to get some game time into them.

“A focus on the future, definitely, we need our members to know that. It’s going to be an eye to the future, but at the same time, we’re going to look to challenge in 2022.”

Holmes and De Koning made their senior debuts last season, while Guthrie has played 39 games across five seasons.

– BY ALEX ZAIA/ SEN