IT'S HARD to criticise the many people who declared that Geelong's glorious era was over at the end of last season.

After all, the Cats had looked old and slow during their mauling from Collingwood in the preliminary final.

They had also suffered further blows when their two-time premiership coach Mark Thompson, and their best player Gary Ablett, quit the club in the weeks that following that loss to Magpies.

A year later, however, Geelong is celebrating a 38-point win over Collingwood in the 2011 Grand Final.

In the space of 12 months, the Cats - reinvigorated by new coach Chris Scott - have turned the tables in stunning fashion.

"I think it says a lot about the competitiveness of the group and the way Scotty's gone about his business this year," midfielder James Kelly said as he soaked up the club's latest triumph.

"People said all kinds of things about us, but I think we've proved plenty of them wrong."

Kelly is one of 12 Geelong stars who are now triple premiership players. The others are Jimmy Bartel, Andrew Mackie, Brad Ottens, Joel Corey, David Wojcinski, Cameron Ling, Matthew Scarlett, Paul Chapman, Joel Selwood, Corey Enright and Steve Johnson.

"To win a third one, it's hard to know what to say," Selwood said.

Geelong's remarkable will to win has become the team's trademark. Indeed, there were stages during the Grand Final that the Cats - the oldest premiership team in 67 years - looked set to be overwhelmed by the younger Magpies.

But after leading by seven points at the final change, they booted five unanswered goals in the last quarter.

"We were confident," said Selwood, who was pipped for the Norm Smith Medal by teammate Jimmy Bartel.

"The footy that we've played in the last month has just been outstanding.

"It has stood up in the big games, we knew that, and we just had to come out and believe in ourselves."

Geelong's winning culture has remained despite plenty of personnel changes during the past five seasons - a period in which the club has contested four Grand Finals, winning three of them.

"We've got some great stories in our team," Selwood said. "I mean 'Podsy' [James Podsiadly] didn't debut until he was 28, Al Christensen got told he was too fat at draft camp, 'Lingy' got told he was too slow."

Then there's the inspirational tale of Tom Lonergan, who lost a kidney while playing for the Cats in 2006.

Lonergan played in his first Grand Final on Saturday, as did Podsiadly, Mitch Duncan, Allen Christensen and Trent West.

"'Domsy' was nearly dead five years ago," Selwood stated while saluting Lonergan, who was proudly showing some family members his premiership medal.

For defender Josh Hunt, the pain of missing the 2009 Grand Final win over St Kilda was a key source of motivation.

"Sitting out in '09, it was great to see the guys get up and win, but it was bitter-sweet," he said.

"To be able to stand here again, and to be able to share this with so many people, it's great.

"Words can't really describe what I'm feeling right now."

Hunt said he was very confident at three-quarter time, despite the narrow margin.

"At three-quarter time Scotty came out and said, 'Guys, we've got the momentum.' He believed in us," Hunt explained.

"To see everyone down on the bench at the end, and to get Scotty down there on ground level to enjoy it, was just great."

As for why Geelong has become such a great unit, the best answer came from the mother of four-goal hero Steve Johnson.

"They're such a close team; really close-knit team of boys," Jenny Johnson said.

"They'll be mates for life."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or its clubs