GEELONG captain Joel Selwood is confident that thecombination of a favourable draw and a boost in form will ensure the Catsfinish the home and away season in the top two, earning a home qualifying final. 

Already second favourite for the premiership with thebookies, Geelong has five of its remaining eight matches at Simonds Stadium,with Melbourne, St Kilda and the Brisbane Lions among the teams headed to theCattery in the coming two months. 

"(The top two) is probably not a focus for us, but weexpect to win every game that we go into," Selwood told AFL.com.au. 

"We took a lot of belief out of Saturday night againstHawthorn and the Saturday night before against Freo as well. 

"We think both of those sides are really strong sidesthat are going to finish in the top four. 

"We want to beat Melbourne this week, then the drawprobably works in our favour because we've got a lot of home games to come. 

"But as we saw against Brisbane (at the Gabba in round13), they took it up to us and we lost the game, so we need to get better everyweek." 

Since frittering away a 52-point lead in the shock loss tothe Lions, the Cats have markedly improved the defensive side of their game. 

They held Fremantle to just 44 points in round 14, thenrestricted Hawthorn – the highest scoring team in the competition – to 72points last weekend. 

"I think we're just playing better team footy,"Selwood said. 

"We always thought we were going to be better atdefending at the end of the year than we were at the start … and we've beenable to hold things up a bit better over the last couple of weeks. 

"We'll keep working at that. We don't set ourselves ascore that we want to keep the opposition team under. We just make sure ourprocesses are right. 

"And we understand that we still need to get better. Weplayed a good three and a half quarters against the Hawks, but we still had alittle 15-minute period where we let them back into the game." 

Selwood has a chance to reflect on his remarkable careerwhen he plays his 150th game on Saturday. 

In his six and a half seasons at Geelong, the 182cmmidfielder has won a NAB AFL Rising Star award, a Geelong best and fairest,played in four Grand Finals, won three premierships and been appointed clubcaptain. 

And he only recently turned 25. 

"(The milestone) has crept up on me in a way,"Selwood admitted. 

"I am proud of what I've been able to achieve. But I'mjust really thankful for the people I've had around me who have helped meachieve those things. 

"I will think about the milestone for a little while,but come Saturday afternoon I won't be thinking about it too much. 

"We obviously have a job to do. We've got ourselves ina position where we're playing some pretty good footy, and it's a challenge togo out and do that again." 

Adam McNicol coversGeelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol