GEELONG skipper Tom Harley says nothing has changed at the Cattery despite the last AFL match played showing his team was 20 goals better than the second-best side in the competition.

While Harley did notice he was far more popular at Thursday’s AFL Club Captains gathering at Telstra Dome than at the same event 12 months earlier, the Cats are now back to square one and on a level playing field with each of their 15 rivals.

“I had dreams of being a premiership player this time 12 months ago and I’ve got them again, so it’s funny how the world turns,” Harley said.

“We’ll just go forward and go about our business the best we can.”

Some would question whether a side that won last year’s decider by 119 points could improve, although Harley has no doubts.

“Yeah, I think we can always be better,” he said.

“We were coming off a very limited base last year and we made massive gains in terms of just our fitness levels and things like that.

“It’s hard to make the same quantum sort of leap but I think we’ve definitely made gains going forward.

“All our fitness results sort of say that. But there’s always that level of anxiety that week before the season starts.

“You couldn’t ask for a better way to start than a game against a really top-notch side [Port Adelaide] over on their turf, so we’re looking forward to it and it’s a nice way to get the ball rolling.”

All 16 AFL clubs were represented by a captain at Telstra Dome on Thursday, with each man surveyed on a range of topics from who they thought would win the Brownlow Medal to their grand final tips.

Not surprisingly, the Cats were warm favourites to feature again in September action.

“Without any hint of arrogance I wasn’t all that surprised with the survey results, often those results are purely a reflection of the year before,” Harley said.

“We know the expectations are high but the expectations internally are probably higher than externally, so we’ve got huge pride in our performance and we want to do well.”

Harley said the Cats, like in 2007, hadn’t discussed long-term goals.

“Our goals tend to be as clichéd as quarter by quarter,” he said.

“Our goal is to start the game [against Port Adelaide] really well in enemy territory if you like, which is a challenge in itself.

“The words ‘finals’ or ‘top-four’ or anything hasn’t been uttered from our group, and that’s only just dawned on me now that I think about it.

“So that’s probably a good thing that the guys are obviously pretty focused.”