NEW ROLE: He called the shots from the Geelong backline now former Cats captain Andrew Bews will be doing it from the pages of the Geelong Advertiser. Bews has signed on as an Addy football columnist this season. Photo: ALISON WYND

Wednesday, Feb. 19
ANDREW MEATH

FORMER Geelong captain Andrew Bews, aka The Rat, will join the Geelong Advertiser as a football columnist this season.

Bews built up a loyal following when he dictated play out of the Cats' backline in the late 1980s and early '90s. He will call the shots again, this time from the other side of the fence, through his weekly column in The Addy.

``I'm really looking forward to keeping in touch with the Cats again and giving what will perhaps be a different opinion to most on why a game is won or lost,'' Bews said yesterday.

``I wrote a column for the Brisbane Courier-Mail when I was still playing with Brisbane in 1998 but there were a few sensitive issues which, as a player, I had to dance around.

``I don't have any allegiances now and I'll be calling it the way I see it.''

Bews' 207-game career with the Cats came to an end in 1994 when he packed his bags and headed north.

After five seasons with Brisbane, he returned to coach Williamstown in the VFL for three seasons and coached his old club Leopold last year.

Work commitments at Geelong Shower Screens and in his own cool vest business, Arctic Heat, may have forced him to step aside from coaching but it hasn't quelled his passion for the game. ``I'd love to still be coaching but to be able to follow what is a young Geelong side and give an insight on their progress is the next best thing,'' he said.