CATS coach Mark Thompson isn’t concerned with the venue – he’s just looking forward to a hard, fair game of footy.
While the Geelong leader said the hometown crowd might help his side “over the line”, he admitted Saturday’s clash with fellow premiership contender, the Western Bulldogs, had raised the excitement levels around Skilled Stadium.
“Yeah I think we are [excited],” Thompson said.
“We’ve had a pretty good rivalry with the Bullies over a five- or six-year period and no doubt our team look at the ladder and look at their performances and know who the quality teams are.
“They’re well aware that they’re playing one this week.”
Thompson said the fallout from the weekend’s spiteful clash with Fremantle had not affected his relationship with Fremantle coach and close friend Mark Harvey.
“Mark Harvey wasn’t the one who went out and did what he did to Cameron Ling,” Thompson said.
The Cats coach said he was proud of the way his players went about the game, saying he got a kick out of watching them at their best.
“So many times now, they get in the mood, in the zone to play footy like they were at the weekend and they’re just awesome to watch,” he said.
“And that’s what I think people come to watch.
“You know they don’t come to the footy to watch brawling fights, king-hits, you know they don’t come to watch defensive footy, they just come to watch entertaining, pure football and I think our boys did it again on the weekend.”
With the two top scoring teams in the AFL set to do battle on Saturday, all fans are looking forward to what promises to be one of the games of the season – including the Geelong coach.
“I think it’ll be a hard game,” Thompson said.
“They’ve just improved so much in the contested-ball side and I think it’ll be a pretty fierce battle.
“I think it’ll be a really fair, hard game of footy.”
Helping the Cats’ bid for a 15th win in 2008 will be rugged forward Paul Chapman, who will play his 150th career match.
He is one of the favourites at the Cattery although the coach admitted the headstrong goalkicker had to earn his spot early in his career.
“He wasn’t quite the footballer that we wanted,” Thompson recalled.
“He was a natural footballer who just chased it and he didn’t have much defense about his game, so we made him really earn it … but he came around and he’s turned into a great little player and I just love him, the way he plays.”
