The Lions were beaten by 27 points by the Cats on a cold wet day at Skilled Stadium in round 13 which was their first loss to Geelong after 10 successive victories since the merger in 1997.
Matthews attended both finals on the weekend and again was impressed by Geelong's handling of the slippery ball on Saturday night in the victory over Essendon.
"I have seen Geelong a bit (this year) and what they are good at is the reason they won on Saturday night," he said on Monday.
"It always helps when you've watched the opposition the week before, because the individuals stick in your mind better."
One of those individuals Matthews will spend some time thinking about this week is Gary Ablett.
"He is a wonderful and talented young player, different because his dad was a key position player, while Gary is a ground level type," observed Matthews.
The Lions were able to redeem their wet form with a hard fought 23-point win over Hawthorn on a miserable winter's day at the MCG in round 20.
"We always think that we play quite well in inclement conditions," Matthews said.
"Our whole game plan is about playing under pressure and the ultimate pressure you can get is when the ball is wet and slippery."
Put on the spot, the coach named Jason Akermanis, Nigel Lappin and rugged forward Jonathan Brown as being some of the better wet weather players at the club.
The MCG was one of many hot topics last week for the Lions and Matthews brought it up again on Monday, but on this occasion he had only praise for the surface.
"The MCG is just a magnificent drying ground," he said
"It had rained for almost 24 hours, yet the first three quarters of Saturday night's game was played in dry weather conditions until it rained again."
The forecast on Monday for Melbourne throughout the week is for more showers and even though they might clear for the weekend, cool conditions are still expected to prevail.
