GEELONG youngster Jordan Murdoch is confident his side still has what it takes to match it with premiership fancies the Sydney Swans, Fremantle and Hawthorn.
The Cats travel to play Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium on Saturday night, before tackling North Melbourne and the Dockers after the bye.
"We've never ruled ourselves out," Murdoch said before departing for Sydney at Melbourne Airport on Friday afternoon.
"We're confident that we're starting to hit our straps at the right time and we can really go deep into September."
But there are a couple of key areas the Cats need to clean up if they want to challenge the top sides, Murdoch says.
The first thing they hope to take care of this week in the game against the Giants is amending their poor interstate record.
The Cats have won just one of their five games on the road so far this year, that victory coming in round two when they beat the Brisbane Lions by 25 points at the Gabba.
Since then they have lost to Port Adelaide by 40 points at Adelaide Oval in round six, Fremantle by 32 points at Patersons Stadium in round nine, the Sydney Swans by 100 points at the SCG in round 11 and Gold Coast by 40 points at Metricon Stadium in round 14.
Geelong's slow starts after half-time have also been a point of concern for Chris Scott and his coaching staff.
The Cats have allowed teams back into contests with too much regularity this season, highlighted in games against the Suns and Essendon (round 15), due to tardy starts to third quarters.
Murdoch said the team had spoken about rectifying that trend on Saturday night against the Giants.
"If you look at the stats – starting games is not our problem this year. We're concentrating on our second halves – especially our third quarters," Murdoch said.
"We know that we're going to go out there and try to start well against this young side and then work around that in the second half and try to drill it home."
The 22-year-old has played every game this season, averaging a career-high 13.5 disposals and exactly one goal per game, and has started to establish himself in Geelong's first-choice side.
But Murdoch understands the importance of maintaining his form in the lead up to finals.
"I love playing with these guys and I don't want to be dropped and I don't want to be playing anything other than AFL footy.
"So I've just got to concentrate on playing my role and playing my best for the team and we're getting wins on the back of that."
