Two years ago Ben Graham was hailed as the forward who would fix Geelong's poor goalkicking record. It was a heavy burden for the then Geelong captain, and when the results didn't come it was Graham who copped the backlash.

This season, he hopes things will be different.

Firstly, he doesn't see himself as the solution to their lean patch up forward.

Rather he sees himself as part of a forward line that will share the load.

"The mistake I made in 2002, I put all these expectations on my shoulders that I was to be the answer,'' he said.

"In the first half of the season while I wasn't the answer it allowed Kent Kingsley to bob up and kick 57 goals for the year so other players got the opportunities.

"Now the mindset is a bit different. It's not about Ben Graham, it's about the whole forward line structure. I'm just one of a number of options.''

Geelong's achilles heel last year was its forward line. Although 12th on the ladder at the end of the season, the Cats kicked the second lowest aggregate score for the year behind Carlton.

The return of former Cat best and fairest winner Ken Hinkley as an assistant coach to oversee the forward line, and the development of third-year players such as Matthew McCarthy and Charlie Gardiner, has raised expectations at the club.

"Ken's come back to the place he loves and even though he played a lot of footy on the half-back flank, he was an offensive player and he's brought that to our forward line,'' Graham said.

"He's made it quite clear that he'll back us all the way, and that gives us a lot of confidence.

"He knows he's walking into a position which has copped a lot of criticism, and he's prepared to go down with the ship if that's the way it goes, he'll go down fighting.''

Graham is prepared to put everything on the line also to see out his playing days at Skilled Stadium.

"My footy career is about wanting to play in a successful team at Geelong,'' he said.

Entering his 12th season, Graham has not missed a game since round one in 1999. Retirement seems a long way off for the 30-year-old who is contracted until the end of this year.

But still on the backburner remains his interest in American football - something he hopes to pursue down the track.