GEELONG senior coach Dan Lowther has described the 2024 season as the most challenging of his four seasons at the helm.

Lowther highlighted the mid-week footy period of the fixture along with his team’s long injury list as contributing factors to the Cats' difficult year.

“Yeah I think it has (been the most challenging season so far),” said Lowther in his press conference following Geelong’s week 10 loss to the Crows.

“The whole season, you know the shift from playing over a stretched season to that condensed period, it’s taken its toll on a lot of players. 

“Our injury list has grown over the season as well. You take away time to train and time to prepare and it does kind of dampen the way the game’s played at times, and then there’s the impact on staff and just the program is squeezed in different areas. 

“I think they’ll learn a lot from this going into next year. I’m hoping it’s not as condensed as it was this year, but yeah it’s taken its toll, but it is what it is.”

This season Geelong suffered injuries to some of its best players including three-time best-and-fairest winner Amy McDonald (hamstring), Georgie Prespakis (quad), Julia Crockett-Grills (ankle), Darcy Moloney (ankle) and Geelong’s season eight leading goal kicker Chloe Scheer (toe).

The Cats also found themselves lacking talls following the retirement of veteran ruck Erin Hoare on the eve of the season, Olivia Fuller was placed on the inactive list for work reasons, and replacement player Lilly Pearce ruptured her ACL at training. 

These losses meant that 33-year-old Kate Darby shouldered the majority of the ruck load in season nine, with assistance from 170cm Gabbi Featherston and former netballer Mel Bragg (177cm).

It wasn’t just injuries that hurt Geelong’s finals chances, with its slow start to the season proving costly, with the Cats only managing to win one game from their first six matches.

The Cats will rue not capitalising on their home ground advantage, losing matches at GMHBA Stadium to Melbourne, Hawthorn and Fremantle.

However, probably the most costly loss of all was their 24 point loss to eventual 14th placed Carlton, where Dan Lowther’s side finished the game goalless.

“It’s interesting… Melbourne we lost by two (points), that was in round one, and I thought we actually did OK to control most of that game, we just didn’t have the finish that we wanted. The Kangaroos game, that was a super game as well.

“Then we just kind of lost our way. 

“It was Carlton, after that (we) had a few injuries.. to key areas of the ground, the combination of players that just hadn’t played together for a while and that kind of impeded our connection piece.

“Look at (our matches against) Fremantle and Hawthorn and Richmond, we were actually in positions to potentially take control of the game but just didn’t have that situational awareness to make it work for us. 

“We’ll look back on the season and reflect on those scenarios where we could have been better with our game awareness.”

Despite just missing finals, the Cats will walk away from this season knowing that their best can match it with the competition's top teams.

A win over reigning premiers Brisbane in week eight and a draw with last year’s runners up North Melbourne will give the Cats confidence heading into next year.

“It gives us a lot of hope for the off season and going into next year,” Lowther said regarding his team’s ability to match it with the top sides.

“We just have to be better as a consistent group, we lost our way in the middle part of the year and we were chasing at the end and this is where we are. 

“So, still proud, very proud of the achievement of pushing the best teams but we’ve got to be better for longer.”

Another positive was the improved performance of key forward Aishling Moloney. In just her second season, the Irishwoman was an equal winner of the competition's goalkicking award, finishing with 21 goals from 11 games, tying with Brisbane’s Taylor Smith. 

Lowther couldn’t speak more highly of his Irish recruit.

“Her instinct around goal.. and the way she finds time and buys time to use her footwork to evade, she’s very good at that," he said.

“She’s a great decision-maker and she comes in (to the club to train) all the time... she’s out here to work and she’s out here to train and get the most out of her time... so, yeah, no surprise she’s had a great year.”

The Cats improved across the duration of the season. In their last few matches, particularly against the Crows, you could see the exciting, fast-paced brand of football the Cats can and want to play. With a healthy list, you can imagine the Cats will move back up the ladder in 2025.