ARE THESE GRINNERS WINNERS?

Time to deliver on home and away form: McGrath

The football world may have written off the Cats but the boys looked anything but glum as they hit the track yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s do-or-die finals clash with the Swans.

CHAMPION former Geelong defender Tim McGrath says there is nowhere for the Cats s to hide with the spotlight t firmly on how they respond against Sydney at the MCG tomorrow night.

McGrath questioned why the Cats had not been able to translate their strong homeand-away form into finals results.

Staring down the barrel of a straight sets exit in the do-ordie blockbuster, Geelong goes into the game having never defeated the Swans in a final.

It also has managed only two wins from its past nine finals since winning the 2011 premiership.

McGrath said the blowtorch had been rightfully applied to the Cats following their qualifying final capitulation against Richmond last week and urged them to show some mettle against the Swans.

“The blowtorch has come on them simply because of their record,” he said.

“The spotlight is on them now. The basic fact is they are a good home-and-away team, but they succumb to pressure in finals, they don’t cope with it well as a collective.

“Come finals every team finds a way to go to another level and we haven’t been able to. Is that the players? The staff? The opposition comes into account.

“That seems to be a common theme, they get mauled early and theyh don’t recover.”

McGrath is no stranger to finals heartache himself, playing in three losing grand finals in his 226-game career.

The Cats were belted around the ball by a rampaging Richmond in the 51-point loss.

And he said Geelong would be in for a rude awakening if they brought a similar intensity against the Swans.

“If you thought Richmond brings the pressure and physicality, then Sydney will smash them into next week,” McGrath said.

“They’ll be better than last week, but they’ve just got to be.”

McGrath backed Geelong to rebound from last week’s loss, but that may not be enough to earn a preliminary final date with Adelaide.

He said if Geelong could play the same way it did against the Western Bulldogs in Round 9, then anything was possible.

The Cats set pressure records in that impressive win, but have struggled to reach those heights again.

“Geelong’s blueprint to play well and be a finals contender was when they played the Bulldogs down here with all the tackles and pressure,” he said.

“Ever since then it’s gone backwards at 1000 miles an hour. They’ve never been there since.

“You’ve got to ask the question, why is that. Why haven’t we got back to that level of pressure, intensity, tackles, taking on the opposition?

“If you can put pressure on the opposition, restrict the opposition and then get your own game going . . . then you actually give yourself a chance.

“If they can get back to that pressure then they will give themselves a chance.”