You have to love the bravado coming out of Geelong over the summer.

despite being thoroughly shown up by Collingwood in the preliminary final, the Cats have been on the front foot all through the pre-season declaring they have one more premiership tilt in them.

But it would be an enormous effort. The Cats are laden with 30-somethings and soon-to-be-30-somethings - Brad Ottens, Matthew Scarlett, David Wojcinski, Corey Enright, Joel Corey, Cameron Ling, Paul Chapman and James Podsiadly among them. It is hard to recall a premiership team with so many elderly citizens - at least in football terms - among them.

You dismiss the Cats at your peril because they've been so consistently good for the last four years. And there will be weeks when Geelong turns it on and makes very good opposition look very mediocre.

New coach Chris Scott will tweak the game-plan and introduce a bit more zone-busting long kicking. Geelong's high-risk handball-happy game-plan was finally brought undone in last year's finals series by the zone-heavy St Kilda and Collingwood. Former coach Mark Thompson saw it coming, but claimed to be powerless to do much about because the players, supposedly would not buy into any wholesale tweaking of the game-plan.

That's where Scott has the advantage. He can demand changes of the players and we like his abandonment of the kid-gloves approach at Geelong. Whereas Thompson allowed the senior players a delayed start to the season - sometimes after Christmas - Scott had them back and working hard as soon as the collective bargaining agreement allowed.

Of course, the new coach isn't the only big adjustment for the Cats. There is the small matter of Gary Ablett's departure to the Gold Coast. Joel Selwood, Jim Bartel and the improved Travis Varcoe form the basis of a fine midfield and there are plenty of others for Scott to rotate through. But Ablett was top dog, received most of the tags and how Bartel and Selwood cope with the increased attention will be a key to Geelong's year.

The Cats promise to keep attacking. So what of the attack? Is Tom Hawkins ready to bust loose? Can Cam Mooney deliver two goals a game in his final season? Will Steve Johnson remain a dynamic and sometimes dazzling mid-sized forward or will he be added to the midfield mix? Will Podsiadly be a one-year wonder?

If Scott can unravel the right answers then the Cats will be in the mix once more. As stated, their best will be very good. But there might just be a few more who go past them in 2011.

The story so far

6. Adelaide

7. Sydney

8. Fremantle

9. Carlton

10. Essendon

11. Melbourne

12. North Melbourne

13. West Coast

14. Richmond

15. Gold Coast

16. Port Adelaide

17. Brisbane