THE MATCH against Geelong comes at a good time, a week after overcoming a 2008 issue as far as our fadeouts have gone.

We were in front of the Lions and the Kangaroos and we let those games slip, and we got over that hurdle against St Kilda after being in front late and holding on.

The players will get some confidence out of that, as it was one of the areas we spoke about going into that game. They were pretty happy in their efforts, and the result.

We spoke about positions and players in those positions taking things for granted and not crossing the t's and dotting the i's before that game, as the players have been sometimes looking after their own backyard as opposed to trying to help their teammates out recently.

They reminded each other of that, and it wasn't a roundhouse discussion but they had an open forum and discussed where they were at and where they had to tighten the screws, and then put it into practice on Friday night.

Now, we have a good test to see how far we've really come against a side that is undefeated this year.

With the Cats, there's been a fair amount of talk about them just cruising. I think many moons ago, having been the premiers once back at West Coast, what everyone does is sit back and think, "These boys are the contenders for the next three or four years, and they're the benchmark".

Then everyone analyses them and talks to opposition coaches and players, and they're always coming up with game plans to knock off the premiers.

I see no major falling away of Geelong. If anything, they're more comfortable with each other and they're playing some great team footy, and sides have gone out with some different battle plans and caught them unawares a few times.

Ultimately, they've shown enough once they've organised themselves to come home with a wet sail so we certainly know it's going to be game on.

We can take a bit out of how we played them last year. Obviously personnel are a bit different, and the form of the players is a bit different too, but you can use what did work and what didn't work.

I think what Anthony Rocca does this week, knowing the type of person and competitive animal he is, he'll keep working just as hard. Like Geelong, the more they win, the closer they are to a loss, and it's kind of the same with Anthony.

Matthew Scarlett may have had the wood on him last year, but at some stage, that's going to turn. Anthony, like us, will be hoping that happens Friday night, and he's not going to leave anything behind to make sure that Scarlett's got an easy game.

Josh Fraser is no certainty, but he did a bit on Tuesday, which was encouraging and a lot more encouraging than what the midfield coach and I expected. We train on Thursday and hopefully he can jump and hit the bag and do what he needs to do to convince us, and himself more so, that he can take the first centre bounce come Friday night.