The Cats sit on top of the ladder but have had an indifferent fortnight with a narrow win over North Melbourne on Friday night and a heavy loss to Collingwood two weeks ago.
"It’s a different year," he said. "Football has changed this year. There are different challenges and we can just work through them on a weekly basis and try to evolve our game so that when it comes to the most important time of year … we are ready for the best that football teams can throw up against us when it matters most."
Thompson said his team had to become more confident when opportunities to kick goals were presented.
"I thought we were quite wasteful," he said.
"It’s not lairising but we’re a bit too selfless and sometimes the footy has just got to be kicked through the goals by somebody and that is something we will probably talk about during the week."
Thompson added that he had expected a tough contest for his side despite Geelong’s strong recent record against North Melbourne.
"We couldn’t shake them. Goals were pretty easy to come by for both teams. They conceded a few easy goals and so did we," he said.
"It was a weird sort of game. The last two times we played them we’ve beaten them by a lot and we always knew they would come out. They never ever give up and they didn’t tonight. To walk away with a victory is the only thing that matters."
But the coach was quick to highlight the positives from the night.
"I love the fact that we changed the game at half time and we played better football,” he said.
"I love the fact we scored a few goals but I wasn’t that happy with how easy we let them score. You can get positives and room for improvements out of this game."
Star defender Matthew Scarlett is expected to miss a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury, but Thompson said the side would be boosted by the return of premiership players Joel Selwood and Josh Hunt.
