GEELONG star Jimmy Bartel says the "off the boil" Cats were lucky to escape with victory in his 200th game against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

Geelong easily accounted for the Crows by nine goals at Skilled Stadium seven weeks earlier, but started sluggishly in the rematch between the two teams.

The club's landslide wins over Melbourne and Gold Coast in the previous fortnight appeared to have an effect as the visitors struggled to absorb Adelaide's pressure early in the contest.

With the exception of a scintillating 10 minutes of play in the second quarter in which the Cats piled on five unanswered goals they never reached top gear, doing just enough to secure a narrow 11-point win.

"It was good to have a hard game after a couple of big wins, but I don't think we're too happy with the way we played," Bartel said after the game.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to the Crows. We were off the boil, but they were up and about and their young players certainly took it up to us all night.

"They went at the ball a lot harder and were hungrier than us early.

"Maybe, if they converted a few more of those inside 50s earlier in the game we could've been in a lot more trouble."

Bartel was one of Geelong's better players in the win.

The versatile Brownlow medallist played predominantly through the midfield, gathering 20 possessions, 11 marks and kicking a goal from a trademark overhead grab inside 50m.

Bartel, who missed only 35 matches in 10 seasons on his way to the 200-game milestone, was chaired from the ground by teammates on Sunday night, but was predictably modest when asked about his achievement.

"The win was the main focus, and being my 200th was just a little bonus," he said.

The Cats will have a bye this week before attempting to record their 30th straight win at Skilled Stadium against the Sydney Swans in round 23.

Coach Chris Scott declined to reveal the Geelong's plans for the bye, but Bartel said he was expecting a tough week of training as the club continues its preparation for finals.

"A bye at this time of the year certainly helps," Bartel said.

"I think we'll manage a few players through the week, but we'll still put in a pretty big training load.

"We'll probably get flogged on the track on Saturday and we've got a lot to work on for the next few weeks.

"We might have a couple of days off during the week, so I'll hit the golf course if the weather is fine enough."