That was the message from Cats skipper Joel Selwood and coach Chris Scott at the club's best and fairest on Thursday night.
"This season, we beat 14 of the 17 other clubs," Selwood said in his speech at the function. "We continued to cause fear for our opposition.
"The industry wants us and expects us to fall away. But we refuse to.
"The Geelong Football Club will not wave the white flag and accept that our time has come or that our time has gone.
"We demand that everyone finds a way to get better, as individuals, as a collective. Players, coaches and staff members are all a part of that.
"Reputations amount for nothing any more. We will learn lessons from this season, we will stay hungry and we will move into 2015 preparations very shortly.
"We’re going to play bold, we’re going to play brave and we’re just going to take the game on, and that Geelong spirit will forever live on."
The Wash-Up: Geelong
Scott echoed Selwood's sentiments in his speech to the passionate gathering of Cats fans.
"We have got a lot to be optimistic about," Scott said.
"We're not going to make any promises here tonight. But if we work hard and find a way to improve, we believe that we're a chance, if we do all of those things, to compete with anyone.
"We have done some work in the last couple of years to prepare for the future.
"We're not necessarily saying that the future is now, but it is possible boys. It is possible. We're well prepared.
"We won't take any short cuts preparing for the longer-term, but we have prepared well enough to give ourselves a chance every single year, and over the last couple of years we haven't been quite good enough.
"I firmly believe that in the next couple of years we're as good a chance as anyone."
Geelong has made the top eight in eight consecutive seasons, but it has only a 1-5 record in finals since it won the 2011 premiership.
The Cats are in the box seat to secure Melbourne-listed forward/ruck Mitch Clark as he looks set to reignite his AFL career.
"It's not over the line, obviously, but I'm so excited by Mitch wanting to the come to the club," Selwood said after being crowned Geelong's best and fairest for the third time.
"We've put a little bit of interest in him but he had more interest in our club than what we had in him to start, and that's the most impressive thing.
"That's not only due to the players right now, but that's Tom Harley and Cameron Ling and the players that came before us.
"He's seen this football club that he wants to fit into, and he thinks that he can, and it's our problem now to make sure we can get it done.
"We'll get it done."
Twitter: @AFL_AdamMcNicol
