Speaking after the match, Thompson described the win at one of the game’s hardest away venues as “outstanding” – but said the Cats were still seeking more.
“We’ve never come to this state and won by so much against a pretty classy opposition (Adelaide), so we’re pretty pleased with that effort,” Thompson said.
“It’s a really hard job to play the Adelaide Crows here. It’s a really hard place to play when the stadium’s full of opposition supporters. To win by so much is outstanding.
“(But) of course we can (play better),” Thompson said. “We didn’t play the perfect game. And we haven’t played it yet, so we’ll continue to strive to seek perfection. We’ll strive to be a better team.”
Despite three players racking up personal best possession counts (Corey Enright, Joel Selwood and James Bartel) and the team being ahead of AFL possession record pace at half time (they ultimately fell nine touches short), Thompson played down the stat-fests importance.
“I don’t really count possessions. Someone told me that we had 460, but it’s almost irrelevant. It’s not important to some football clubs; it’s not important to Geelong. We try to measure other things that are important to us.”
The measurables rated by Thompson include his side’s starts.
“It’s been something we’ve been trying to work on, to have better starts and win first quarters. That’s in the areas that we measure. It sets up the rest of the game.
“You always try and take the crowd out when you play interstate, tonight we did it particularly well.
“There were a lot of things that pleased me. A lot. The first quarter was certainly one. Our intensity. And our ability to move the ball through a really crowded part of the ground was another. I think our quick ball use was getting to be at the level that we want it to be.”
Most importantly for Thompson – and it is probably easy for him to say – is the quality of the football.
“The football was good. You should just watch it (the football) rather than go to stats. Is it good football to watch? And I thought tonight’s game was a pretty good game to watch.
“It would be great if we could crush every team every week. But everybody knows that just doesn’t happen. We don’t go out to crush teams; we go out to play the best football we’re capable of playing.”
