Mark Duffield: Jeremy Cameron’s free agency call a godsend for Geelong, and an end for GWS’ premiership window

As it stands, Geelong has picks 11, 13 and 16 in the national draft. It may now also have Jeremy Cameron and it is exploring the possibility of bringing Shaun Higgins to the club. The challenge for teams at the top of the ladder is to keep themselves relevant. Thanks to the Tim Kelly trade — and now Cameron’s want to leave GWS — don’t expect Geelong to be any less relevant in 2021 than they have been in 2020 ... and in 2020 they are playing in a grand final. There will be ongoing argument about who wins the Kelly trade — just as the argument has only recently been decided once and for all on who won the Chris Judd-Josh Kennedy trade and that happened 13 years ago. But what we can say is that Geelong have remarkably got better without Kelly while West Coast are yet to show clearly that they are better with him. They still might be. They might eventually be. Kelly may end up being a two or three time premiership player in blue and gold. But the Cats, the oldest team in this finals series, have the chance to start a list re-boot off the trade and Cameron coming in will add experience to the youth. Cameron is 27 and has kicked 427 goals in 171 games at two and a half goals a game. He turns left. All these things help when you are striving for class and diversity in an attack. Tom Hawkins has been one of the competition’s best forwards this year but he is 32. The ability to get Cameron in as short term support with a view to eventually replace Hawkins will be a godsend to Geelong. There will still be significant transitional challenges for the Cats. Gary Ablett will retire, Harry Taylor and Lachie Henderson might not be far behind him. Joel Selwood is the same age as Hawkins and has had to be managed this year. Meanwhile the window has closed at the Giants. They have lost too many now. They can either let Cameron go and harvest a draft pick or match Geelong’s deal and forced a trade. For now though, the Cats continue to keep themselves relevant — something they have done since 2004. Not even Hawthorn has kept themselves up for as long.