Cats taught finals lesson

Lonergan says team must turn it around against Blues

GEELONG veteran Tom Lonergan says the Cats were taught a lesson in finals-like pressure by a rampaging Adelaide.

And if the Cats do not heed that warning, a repeat of Friday night’s 21-points loss could be handed out come finals.

Geelong was fumbly, made poor decisions by hand and was belted through the middle of the ground by the tabletopping Crows.

Lonergan said it was now up to the players to rebound quickly, starting against Carlton on Saturday night.

“We will look at the film (of Friday night’s game),” he said.

“There will be some good learning tools from it. Hopefully we learn a bit about the finals-like atmosphere that was out here and take that into Carlton.

“They (Carlton) took it right up to Adelaide a few weeks ago, so they are going to be tough team. There are no easy teams this year, it’s pretty even.

“We are going to have to get back home, recover and get ready for them.”

Lonergan, however, said the team’s inability on Friday night to handle the heat early was not cause for alarm yet.

“I think we have been in games where we have handled it well this year,” he said.

“(We played) Adelaide six weeks ago and we dished up the same thing at home and they probably didn’t handle it well.

“We will learn a lot from that, get back on the horse and give it a good go.”

Places inside the top eight are still right up for grabs with five games remaining.

Richmond’s win over Greater Western Sydney yesterday keeps the Cats in second, but only six points split them and Melbourne.

Geelong must still play third-placed GWS, fourthplaced Richmond and sixth- placed Sydney on the run home into finals.

The 22 who played at Adelaide Oval on Friday night held a meeting straight after the loss, keen to dissect the performance while it was still raw.

“It was just to point out that we’ve got to do the work,” Lonergan said.

“It’s a very even competition. This is what we are going to face five, six weeks’ time.

“We are going to face some big games and we have got to be ready for it.”