Geelong skipper Tom Harley has conceded the Cats face more opposition to win the premiership this season than in either its successful 2007 season or last year when it suffered a shock loss to Hawthorn in the grand final.
The Cats have become the first team to win 18 games or more in three successive seasons and, after winning the 2007 premiership by a record 119-point margin against Port Adelaide in the grand final and losing last year when kicking a wasteful 11.23, are aiming for their second flag in three seasons this year.
But unlike the past two years when the Cats went into the finals on the back of dominant form in the home-and-away season - this year the Cats head into their opening final against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday at the MCG with just five wins from their past nine games and with injury concerns surrounding star forwards Paul Chapman and Steve Johnson.
However Harley said not only have the Cats had to overcome more obstacles this season in terms of injuries to key players - with Brad Ottens and James Kelly only resuming from long-term injuries in Round 22 last week - but they face a greater number of genuine premiership challengers this season.
In 2007 it was a case of the Cats and then how far to the rest of the competition with the inexperienced Power eventually facing them in the grand final while last year the Cats finished four games clear on top of the ladder with Hawthorn right from the start of the finals looming as their only likely challenger.
But this year Harley believes any of the top-four teams in minor premier St Kilda, the third-placed Dogs and fourth-placed Collingwood as well as his team can win the flag while he is also wary of the dangerous fifth-placed Adelaide Crows.
"There are maybe more sides going into the finals with a genuine (premiership) chance than the last couple of years," Harley said.
"We are amongst the pack (this year rather than way out in front as in 2007 and 2008) and we will see how it all pans out the next month."
Given the Cats' much-documented injury problems this year, Harley admitted that if the Cats did win the flag in 2009 it would be an even better achievement than the drought-breaking 2007 premiership success.
"We probably had more challenges this year than we have had in the past," Harley admitted.
"But in saying that we are comfortable with where we are with our squad and the health of our players now."
"Sure we have had challenges along the way but we are happy with where we are at now."
"But it's a different team now (to 2007) and a different feel and this year has been really even with some great sides running around."
"So if we did win the flag this year, and we think we are capable of that, it would be a great effort but to undersell the (premiership chances of the) other sides would be unfair."