Geelong's reign as the undisputed kings of the AFL is about to come to an end.
At least that was the view of the AFL captains on Thursday in their annual poll on the eve of the season as the game's leaders instead nominated last year's runners-up St Kilda and NAB Cup champions and beaten preliminary finalists of the past two years in the Western Bulldogs as the teams to beat in season 2010.
The 16 club captains gave their answers to a series of questions on the grounds of confidentiality with the most surprising response coming when they were asked - 'Which other club (besides your own) is most likely to reach the Grand Final.'
While the Cats - who have won two of the past three premierships and a total of 65 out of 75 matches during that time - have been the universal choice of virtually every captain in the past couple of seasons to reach the grand final, this year only three rival captains tipped the Cats' to reach their fourth successive premiership decider.
In contrast the Saints and the Bulldogs - the two teams with the longest premiership droughts in the competition - attracted six votes each from the rival skippers while the other vote went to Collingwood, the other beaten preliminary finalist from last year.
And when asked which seven other clubs would feature in the top eight this year, one captain even tipped the Cats to miss the eight with only Collingwood, St Kilda and the Bulldogs attracting the votes of all 15 rival captains to play in the finals this year while Brisbane and Geelong attracted 14 of a possible 15 votes.
Other teams widely tipped to make the finals were Adelaide - with 13 of the rival 15 skippers tipping them to make the eight - and 2008 premiers Hawthorn, which attracted 12 votes.
The eighth spot is seen as wide open by the captains with Port Adelaide - five votes - attracting the next highest support while Fremantle, Richmond and Melbourne were the only clubs that were not tipped to make the finals in 2010 by a single rival captain.
On the individual front, the Brownlow Medal is tipped as being wide open with 11 different players nominated by the 16 captains as their choice to win the award.
Geelong's reigning winner Gary Ablett won the most support with three votes while teammate Joel Selwood, St Kilda star Nick Dal Santo and Carlton skipper and 2004 winner Chris Judd received two votes each while the Bulldogs' boom recruit Barry Hall was even tipped by one captain to win the Brownlow.
Hall, who dominated the NAB Cup for the Bulldogs in kicking 17 goals in three matches including seven in the grand final win over St Kilda when he won the Michael Tuck Medal for best afield, was also tipped by four captains to win this year's Coleman Medal.
Former Carlton bad boy and now Brisbane spearhead Brendan Fevola was tipped by five captains to win the Coleman while Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin was the top choice of four skippers to be this year's leading goalkicker.
And as for the Rising Star of 2010, West Coast's exciting young ruckman Nic Naitanui and North Melbourne midfielder Jack Ziebell were the top choices attracting five votes each from the skippers.