FINISHING up in 2023 after losing a preliminary final to Brisbane, the Cats have big expectations ahead of this season. The Geelong captain Meghan McDonald knows what they have to do to progress further in 2024.

When asked about what they found out about themselves after their pre-season fixtures against Collingwood and Essendon, McDonald admitted they have lots to work on.

“We are a work in progress,” she chuckled.

“I think that’s going to be something for us to navigate, from the first season we’ve come in with, this is the greatest expectation I think we’ve had across the pre-season internally and externally.

“We got done in contested ball against Essendon, that won’t get it done so it’s [just about] being hard to play against [and] strong in the contest and the rest will flow off the top of that.

“It’s always hard to tell how much a practice game is going to be predicting the things to come, but it was a good hit [out] and a good reminder of what it takes to be successful.”

When pressed further about what the Cats have recognised in their post-season assessment, McDonald was honest about where they are at as a squad.

“No doubt, it’s putting the ball through those big sticks a few more times against the better teams I think,” McDonald continued.

“I think that’s been part of it is being able to unlock some scoring against most of the competition but there’s no doubt that there’s some sophistication of the defence of those Brisbane’s, North’s, Melbourne’s, all those sorts of teams [and that] is something that we can still get better at.

“At the same time, you forget that footy is a simple game and it’s won at the contest so we’ll have a focus on being hard to play against and getting our hands on the pill.”

With Geelong being a team that ought to finish in the top eight, there are so many players that are key to their success this season. McDonald spoke about those that have caught her eye this pre-season.

“It’s hard to go past some of our, what are our more established players,” she said.

“I think we haven’t had Georgie Prespakis in the pre-season games so that core group of players that are 22 to 23 years old, that’s where I think we know the most that’s where the growth will come from.

“We’ve [also] now had a fourth Irish player join the list [in] Kate Kenny, she’s really exciting [and] she’s got a lot of learning to do but she’s got Aishling Moloney next to her and she had that breakout year last year.

“So [it will be] exciting to see where [Moloney will] go with another season under her belt.

“I think we are proud of our sort of retention and our growth from the list we already had, so it’s about new names and about deepening knowledge and development as athletes to go as or even better again this year.”