It is, perhaps, one of the great curses placed on the Geelong Football Club that cloning really hasn’t developed much as a science since the Roslin Institute in Scotland cloned Dolly the Sheep nearly 30 years ago.
I’m near certain that it keeps Chris Scott up at night as he tosses, turns, and ponders: where will Mark Blicavs play this week? Why can’t I have three of him?
Scarcely in football has there been a player whose role has changed so much, and never has there been a player who has so freely adapted to whatever he has been asked to do (except for kicking goals, but we forgive you Blitz).
As a child (I say as a child, but it’s still true now), I was a stats-obsessed nerd. I remember, very distinctly, leafing through the 2010 AFL Record Season Guide (it had Gary Ablett on the cover and as a 12 year old it was therefore an absolute must have), and forensically analysing the Geelong page. What I simply could not get a grasp on was how, despite the club’s long and storied history in the AFL, only two players had ever crested the threshold of 300 games (Ian Nankervis and Sam Newman, for those playing along at home).
I was certain that Darren Milburn would get there; he didn’t. The wait went on until 2015, when Corey Enright played his 300th in a rare home loss to Melbourne. Since then, some of the greatest names in Geelong history have played their 300th for the club: Jimmy Bartel, Joel Selwood, Tom Hawkins, Mitch Duncan. Now Mark Blicavs joins them atop the mountain. You’d have got good odds on that when he debuted.
I do have some increasingly hazy memories of Blicavs’ debut, on Easter Monday 2013. I remember trying to figure out how to pronounce a Latvian surname, and knowing that he was a steeplechaser who tried out for the 2012 Olympics; I didn’t, however, know what steeplechase actually was.
I vaguely remember a mop of blonde hair in the very distinctive and now iconic no. 46 jumper, there to solve Geelong’s ruck issues. The revolving door of ruckmen hasn’t really stopped since that day: Trent West, Hamish McIntosh, Dawson Simpson, Nathan Vardy, Zac Smith, Rhys Stanley, Jon Ceglar. With the exception of Stanley, these have broadly been short term options, none of whom compare really to the longevity of Blitz.
As testament to that fact, Blicavs is third all time on AFL Tables for hitouts for the club (with all the usual caveats of being since 1965 and inaccuracy of recorded stats before 1999 and so on); regardless, this is an impressive feat given he has played multiple seasons as one of the Cats’ first choice key defenders.
Blicavs’ first Carji Greeves Medal win came in 2015; one of the rare seasons in which Geelong failed to reach September. Nonetheless, his efforts in a midfield which was often beaten were rightly recognised. I maintain, and will forever, that his harnessing of the third man up tactic was not just a sight to behold, but was the reason the AFL banned the tactic at the end of the 2016 season. I think the thing that sums Blicavs as a player up to me is this snippet from an interview after the AFL announced the rule change:
“When they did I got on with it pretty quickly and was like; “That’s fine. Where’s my next role? What am I going to improve on?”
“It forces me to adapt and change my game style, which will help me improve anyway, I think.”
It truly warms the cockles of the heart, but perhaps more importantly he was right. In 2018, essentially as a full time full back, Blicavs once again won the Best and Fairest, demonstrating his utility to Chris Scott.
Here is a guy who has played every role he has ever been asked to play, from key defender to ruck to wingman to tagger, and has done so with aplomb. He has gone from a guy who didn’t really look much like a footballer on Monday, April 1, 2013, to a two time B&F winner, an All Australian, a Premiership player, and a 300 gamer in almost exactly 13 years. Never has he missed more than five games in a season.
To me, this is a story of growing up. Of watching a very, very good footballer blossom before my eyes as he matured on the field and I matured (sort of) off it.
It’s a story of Geelong’s success, in finding a guy who not many would have viewed as an elite talent and trusting the development and culture of the club to make him into an elite talent.
It’s a story, really, of the age old axiom that hard work will get you places.
And finally, it’s a story of a guy who, outside the four walls of Kardinia Park, might not get the recognition he gets inside it; 21 career Brownlow votes is proof of that. But this is a guy every Cats fan wants to see running out there every week, if not just to find out: where will Blicavs be magnificent this week?
Congrats on 300, Blitz. Here’s to many, many more.