Now to win on the road, says Blicavs

GEELONG utility Mark Blicavs says taking the side’s winning form on the road was the next test for the Cats.

Three straight wins at Simonds Stadium have the Cats on 8-3 heading into this weekend’s bye.

“We feel really confident at home,” Blicavs said. “It helps that we train every day here so we just know the ground really well inside and out.”

The next question mark on the Cats is whether they could translate their sublime form to Melbourne and interstate, away from the comforts of their home fortress.

Wins against the Western Bulldogs, Port Adelaide and Adelaide in the past three weeks have stamped the Cats as contenders, but Blicavs said his side would now be judged outside of Geelong.

“We’d probably love to play like that away from home,” he said.

“We’ve shown glimpses of it at Etihad and the ’G this year where we’ve played really well, but we’d like to put out more of a four-quarter performance like that on the ’G or over in WA.

“We’re feeling really confident; we feel like our best footy is good enough to match it with any team in the league but it’s about that consistency and if we get that over the four quarters it goes a long way.”

Blicavs said the best way to carry its form would be to take the side’s defensive structures and adapt them to the other venues.

“I’m sure we’ll talk about it; we’ve got the bye this week so a few guys will go away and recharge the batteries, which is good,” he said.

“Different grounds, the way ovals are set up plays a different part.

“But I think we’re defending well as a team, which is good, so we’ve got a system in place if we can defend as a team it works really well, so we’ve done that well last three weeks and we just need to continue it on.”

But Blicavs said his side would take confidence it can continue its winning run away to West Coast.

“We go into every game feeling confident the way we want to play and the way we can play can win games. We were confident before the game, but it (Friday’s win) reasserts the way we’re playing, we can match it with the best.”