{"id":377499,"date":"2024-03-18T20:21:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T21:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377499"},"modified":"2024-03-19T03:06:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T03:06:05","slug":"fears-speedy-cat-could-flee-after-teammates-sign-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377499","title":{"rendered":"Fears speedy Cat could flee after teammates sign on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a big weekend for <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/geelong-cats\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Geelong\">Geelong<\/a> fans and it wasn&#x27;t just because of the gutsy <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2024-ollie-dempsey-break-out-geelong-st-kilda-matthew-lloyd-joel-selwood-stand\/2a13c7d4-af04-42c6-bd4d-7f058d84257b\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"eight-point win on Saturday night over the Saints\">eight-point win on Saturday night over the Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It also wasn&#x27;t just because they opened their new <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2024-geelong-open-new-stand-joel-selwood-gmhba-stadium-st-kilda\/c15be830-eb96-4afc-b5ae-4d69a4504b53\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Joel Selwood Stand\">Joel Selwood Stand<\/a> in front of a record crowd of nearly 40,000.<\/p>\n<p>The excitement came post victory at GMHBA Stadium, with two young recruits and a premiership defender putting pen to paper, while another up-and-coming forward received a special honour for his breakout game.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2024-sydney-swans-lance-buddy-franklin-retirement-tom-morris-report-leigh-matthews-jimmy-bartel-comments\/33ceef3b-ce0a-4e9f-b0a0-2122b1a2b6dd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Sydney &#x27;had enough of Buddy&#x27; before retirement<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/news-2024-david-warner-test-retirement-australia-candice-warner-podcast-interview\/6932e53a-e7dc-4f63-a3e7-127bb849d7e3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;I&#x27;ve got a list&#x27;: Candice addresses Warner critics<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-south-sydney-rabbitohs-coach-jason-demetriou-criticism-former-player-josh-mansour\/1331e01d-5e81-419f-befa-d00aea260805\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>Mansour reveals how Demetriou lost his trust at Souths<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, there are worries that speedy wingman Max Holmes, who could be worth up to $1 million come season&#x27;s end, has yet to sign on with the hoops.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Meantime, forward Ollie Dempsey \ufeffwas handed the AFL&#x27;s round one rising star nomination after his three goals guided the Cats to victory.<\/p>\n<p>The honour came after Geelong re-signed prized top-10 pick Jhye Clark for two years, alongside defender Zach Guthrie and Irish recruit Oisin Mullin\ufeff for one year.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"c109cc7f-9788-4b27-8303-a19f213aa90c\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/c109cc7f-9788-4b27-8303-a19f213aa90c\" alt=\"Ollie Dempsey was electric in Geelong&#x27;s win.\" data-width=\"3827\" data-height=\"2551\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The next steps for the Cats will be to sign a plethora of other star players, particularly injured premiership midfielder \ufeffCam Guthrie and Holmes, who both come out of contract at season&#x27;s end.<\/p>\n<p>Zach Guthrie says he has no fears that his older brother will sign on.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#x27;t see why not, unless he doesn&#x27;t want to keep playing with me,&quot; Guthrie joked on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Cats are still working towards their biggest signing of the year, hoping that Holmes puts pen to paper.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"fd690bc1-3598-4439-971c-ab3b8ee4b96e\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/fd690bc1-3598-4439-971c-ab3b8ee4b96e\" alt=\"Max Holmes is out of contract come season&#x27;s end.\" data-width=\"1605\" data-height=\"903\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s only his third season of professional football, coming from an athletics background, he&#x27;s got massive\ufeff scope for improvement. He&#x27;s putting himself in the right position,&quot; defender Tom Stewart said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Meantime, superstar defender Stewart will notch up game 150 against the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Friday night, a milestone the 31-year-old never thought he&#x27;d make.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffHis journey to the top was an unorthodox one, being scouted as a mature age recruit by one of the Cats&#x27; greatest defenders of all time, Matthew Scarlett in 2013.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"e0cd7cae-4f5b-4484-b2e2-78e75884f690\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/e0cd7cae-4f5b-4484-b2e2-78e75884f690\" alt=\"Tom Stewart says he hopes Holmes signs on.\" data-width=\"2445\" data-height=\"1630\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Stewart was playing under Scarlett in the Geelong District Football League for South Barwon, when the three-time premiership Cat urged him to take his career seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffGeelong struck gold with the 40th pick in the 2016 draft, and Stewart has become one of the AFL&#x27;s best defenders.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s a milestone that if you would have asked me seven years ago, I probably wouldn&#x27;t ever thought I would achieve. It&#x27;s something I&#x27;m really proud of,&quot; Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p>The Cats will face Adelaide on Friday night.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>It was a big weekend for Geelong fans and it wasn&#x27;t just because of the gutsy eight-point win on Saturday night over the Saints. It <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377499\" title=\"Fears speedy Cat could flee after teammates sign on\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377499"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377504,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377499\/revisions\/377504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/377004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}