Old warriors Jimmy Bartel and Corey Enright head back to business Jimmy Bartel's role has changed at Geelong as the side brings in new midfield talent. Picture: Peter Ristevski Source: HWT Image Library THEY are the centre-square warriors who have shared six premierships, two best-and-fairests, a Brownlow Medal and a North Smith Medal. Yet one of the most remarkable aspects of Geelong's unbeaten run this year has been the changing roles of veterans Jimmy Bartel and Joel Corey. Cats coach Chris Scott is reinventing his side by stealth, stationing the pair backward of centre as he thrusts new names into his centre-square squad. The Cats have followed a similar path to Hawthorn, which has stationed senior midfielders like Sam Mitchell across half-back for much of the year to ensure quality delivery from the back half. Geelong keeps confounding, ranked 17th in clearance differential, but it's on a five-match winning streak because no side wins it back as quickly or effectively from the first disposal after that clearance. And, while captain Joel Selwood remains a centre-square mainstay, Corey and Bartel are nowhere to be seen compared to their statistics of last year. Last year, dual best-and-fairest winner Corey was in 61 per cent of the club's centre-square bounces, with swingman Bartel in there 30.3 per cent of the time. So far this season, Corey is down to just 20 per cent, and Bartel 19.1 per cent. Both win the majority of their possessions in the back half, with Bartel even taking 17 kick-ins: the second most for Geelong behind Corey Enright. Heat maps show Corey wins 71 per cent of his possessions in the back half, shading even Bartel, who wins 69 per cent of his touches in defence. Replacing them in the midfield is a mix of old and new. Paul Chapman (23.2 per cent last year to 52.3 per cent in 2013), Allen Christensen (16.9 to 27.6 per cent) and George Horlin-Smith (up to 27.6 per cent) all have huge rises in centre-square involvement. Josh Caddy and Taylor Hunt also spend plenty of time in the centre, with a Geelong side, which has missed the finals just once since 2004, thriving despite the inevitable shift in demographic. Last year, the AFL world was obsessed with Geelong's clearances rate, as it won a string of games despite negative clearance numbers. Champion Data statistics show Geelong's opposition has the least effective clearances.