Max Holmes did not bounce back easily from last year’s preliminary final defeat.
The day had not gone as planned. Unwell during the week, he still felt ill on the day. After performing well in the first 2½ quarters despite the ailment, he slipped trying to kick the ball off the ground at a centre bounce.
Max Holmes had a flying start to the season against Fremantle.Credit: Getty Images
Geelong were already starting to lose their grip on the game when he headed to the bench to receive treatment on his hamstring from physio Steve Saunders in the third quarter.
When Holmes returned his usual zing was missing, and he was subbed off soon after he struggled to evade the Lions’ Kai Lohmann early in the last quarter, watching from the sidelines as the Cats lost an epic final.
After swallowing the bitter pill that came with missing the 2022 grand final, here he was, two years later, digesting more disappointment.
“It was tough for a bit, I won’t lie,” Holmes said.
The team accepted that the Lions took their chance and the Cats didn’t. But Holmes had to dig deep to find the right philosophical outlook after experiencing another crushing sporting blow, one familiar to professional athletes prepared to dance close to the edge of disappointment in the pursuit of victory.
“You have those games so it is a bit of ‘What can you do?’ We’re not sitting here worrying about it or thinking about it too much,” he said. “If that is the worst thing that happens to me in my life I have lived a pretty good life.”
It is not the Cats’ style to look back. Each year is packaged up and put in a file.
Unlike Sydney, which spent seven hours under new coach Dean Cox reviewing their shattering grand final loss, the Cats find it more productive to focus on what lies ahead. That doesn’t mean they’re right or that the bow they put on each year, regardless of how it ends, is easy to tie. It’s just their way, a method that helps the team contend year after year.
Max Holmes is a damaging player at just 22. Credit: Getty Images
“We know that we can play good footy, and we know that we can do it well and if we make errors there is no point dwelling on them,” Holmes said.
“From a mental space I am all good about going into the season and not dwelling on what has happened and just continuing to improve for this year.”
“Improvement” should look out with speedster Holmes chasing it again. He has improved each season since the Cats traded their future first-round pick with Richmond during the 2020 national draft to nab him at No.20.
But it won’t be easy to continue that trend after a breakout year when he won the club best and fairest easily and was named in the All-Australian squad. But it is what drives a person who understands that with further development, he is good enough to match it with the best.
“I am not big on goal-setting. I just want to go as well as I possibly can. Personally, I set a benchmark for myself each year and as far as goals have gone each year I have just been about improving from the previous year,” Holmes said. “Last year was the benchmark, and we will continue from there.
When Holmes arrived, his athletics background was well known. He was an outstanding junior over 400 metres and his mum, Lee Naylor, had represented Australia in both Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
Holmes’ mother Lee Naylor, who represented Australian on the track.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
It didn’t take the Cats long to recognise they had more than an athlete on their list as his football ability shone through. The challenge was to combine the two qualities to make Holmes into the damaging footballer he is becoming.
“When I first got to the club I was tentative to get the ball and run and use my speed. I think last year was the first year I fully embraced that part of the game,” Holmes said. “The coaches have been strong on me using my strengths and playing the way I can.”
He took his first running bounce in his 13th match and just 24 in his first 50 games despite urgings from teammates to let it rip. Last season, with quads so strong they wouldn’t look out of place hanging off a butcher’s hook, Holmes took 60 bounces in 25 matches, splitting opposition defences with piercing runs.
In the qualifying final against Port Adelaide, he showed his appetite for destruction when he burned off Zak Butters at a centre clearance, taking four bounces before kicking long to the top of the square, setting up Tyson Stengle to kick a crumbing goal. The play was reminiscent of the best midfielders, such as Patrick Dangerfield and the man who “Danger” compared Holmes to at the end of 2022, former great Chris Judd.
Holmes, 22, suddenly represents the Cats’ future. He signed a four-year deal last season that tied him down the coast until the end of 2027. He is happy and able to play many positions, but he wants to do more than make up the numbers.
“It’s gotten to that stage where I am able to mix and match where the coaches want me, which I am pretty happy to do, I guess, as long as I am having an impact,” Holmes said. “If I was going to half-back just to sit there, I don’t want to be doing that. I want to make a difference.”
Oliver Dempsey (left) and Max Holmes are part of the next generation at Geelong.Credit: AFL Photos
What helped Holmes re-commit were signs that a litter of young Cats were joining him at GMHBA Stadium and contention remained possible. Since his arrival in 2021, the turnover has been significant, with 26 players on the Cats’ list in his first season no longer there. Entering that year, Jordan Clark, Ben Jarvis and Charlie Constable were the only players aged 21 or under who had played a senior game.
At the start of last year, Holmes, Ollie Henry, Toby Conway, Ollie Dempsey, Ted Clohesy, Jhye Clark and Mitch Knevitt had all played senior football by 21, while Sam DeKoning and Shannon Neale had emerged from the 2021 crop of 21 and unders. Geelong’s team that played Fremantle in round one was eighth in the AFL for games experience and sixth for average age.
“The dynamics have changed a bit at the club since I got here. In contrast to when I got drafted, there weren’t a whole lot of young guys my age playing,” Holmes said.
“2023 was the first year I was thinking we are going to be OK for a few years … we have a young core group of guys who can be strong and influential for Geelong in future years.”
Holmes has developed strong friendships among that group. Thoughtful and smart, he is studying commerce and possesses that enviable mix of both inner drive and perspective, qualities in common with the Cats’ previous generations. Holmes is an excellent judge of the game, but admits he also sometimes marches to the beat of his own drum when preparing for battle.
“I am a bit spacey at training to be honest, so I feel like generally [the coaches] just let me go and do what I want to do,” Holmes said.
Why wouldn’t they? It’s working. Holmes’ versatility to play in the midfield, on the wing or across half-back, combined with Dangerfield and recruit Bailey Smith, will make the Cats a dangerous combination once again in 2025.
He is excited about what Smith is bringing, already enjoying the energy he has brought to the club. Together, the pair’s competitive instincts are likely to fast-track each other to greater heights.
They made a flying start to the season, too, with Smith best on ground and Holmes earning four coaches’ votes; the pressure he applied in the first half against the Dockers set up his 24-touch, two-goal game.
Holmes shapes as a leader, if for no other reason than being poised to become Geelong’s best player by year’s end. The speedster’s perspective also reveals such qualities lie within.
“I am adopting a little bit of a leadership role just on the basis that I have played a few more games than the younger guys,” Holmes said.
“Most of those guys are strong, independent [people] themselves, so they can handle it. But looking forward, I have been trying to encourage and lead as I get older.”
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