In the changing of an era of dominance Geelong missed the finals in 2015 for the first time since 2006.
Has their long period of success come to an end or are they ready to turn it around with a few key acquisitions?
At the end of 2015 season Geelong delisted aging stars James Kelly and Steve Johnson, and had senior players Matthew Stokes, Hamish McIntosh and Jared Rivers all retire. Geelong are also expected to lose aging stars Jimmy Bartel, Andrew Mackine, Tom Lonergan and Corey Enright in the next year or two.
However, it is not all bad news for Geelong!
In 2015 they managed to get a significant number of games into their younger brigade of up and coming players and could turn their fortunes around sooner rather than later. In the up coming trade period they are 99.99% to get superstar Patrick Dangerfield from Adelaide through either free agency or a trade, they are also likely to get key position forward/defender Lachie Henderson from Carlton, and are the likely suitors for Joel Selwood's younger brother Scott should he choose to leave West Coast as a free agent.
While these additional players do not offset the number of stars they have lost recently, the quality of Dangerfield, Selwood and Henderson, and the developing young brigade at Geelong could be enough to lift Geelong back into contention.
The only road block for Geelong is how tough Adelaide deal with them in regards to Patrick Dangerfield. Dangerfield has stated he will not go to any other club than Geelong but Adelaide, who do not believe the free agency compensation will be enough, have hinted they will match any offer from Geelong. What this will mean is that Dangerfield will have to be traded to Geelong or risk going into the AFL draft. Either way Geelong will have to part with something other than money to obtain the services of Dangerfield which is not in the best interests for their other potential trades.
It will be interest to see how it all transpires with only 3 sleeps until the free agency period begins!
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