The Cats produced inconsistent footy against Collingwood on Thursday night, trailing by 20 points at quarter time before an eight-goal second tern set up their eventual 27-point win at the MCG.
“That’s just footy at the start of the year and it’s probably the hardest period to play in,” he said.
“There’s certainly going to be fluctuations in footy. We’ve still got a lot of footy left. It’s only round three.”
But he did admit he was “very happy with half of it and very angry for the other half.”
Certainly, his animated three-quarter time address gave a clear insight to what he thought of his team’s third quarter effort, when they scored just one goal and allowed Collingwood to have nine scoring shots at the other end.
At half time he had told the team to “stay on the job and play the ultimate team game and play the ultimate team structure.”
He was happy the team responded with a strong last quarter, and praised best on ground forward Paul Chapman for his ability to produce in big games.
“He was in the best players in round one against Hawthorn so against two of the better teams in the competition, he’s played really well,” Thompson said.
“He had a fantastic summer, came back lean and really trained very hard and has been an exceptional person around the footy club. He’s getting the reward by playing good footy in big games.”
Young defender Harry Taylor played a vital role, according to his coach, who said Taylor’s opponent Travis Cloke had always been a difficult proposition for the Cats.
“That would be the quietest game Cloke has played against Geelong and we’ve been wanting a bloke to play tall on a tall marking player and have the endurance to keep up with them,” Thompson said.
“Harry has been getting some big scalps and some big tasks in his first year and a bit of football.”
Of the lesser profile players, the Geelong coach was happy with Travis Varcoe’s input.
“It wasn’t big stats but he had influence and some of his possessions were really effective,” he said.
“We love what he’s doing and would have loved him to attack the game quicker than he has. Step by step, he is feeling more confident at this level.”
