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Must-win mindset sets up Cats for ...

ALL-AUSTRALIAN backman Tom Stewart says Geelong is embracing the challenge of having to come from the bottom half of the eight in this season’s finals series and has declared anything less than a premiership in 2018 would be a disappointment.

The Cats qualified in eighth position and on Friday night will play in their first elimination final since 2012, a night Fremantle jumped them at the MCG and denied them the chance to continue their pursuit of back-to-back flags.

Since then they have finished the home-and-away season in the top four in four out of five years, placing them in unfamiliar territory when they take on Melbourne in two days’ time.

But Stewart (pictured) said with everything on the line, he was confident Geelong could play its best footy.

“It is nice to not have that comfort blanket there, to just know you have to play your best footy,” he said.

“I quite enjoy that, I think it is a good mindset to have going into finals footy, you shouldn’t be waiting for next week or the next game you have to play, you should just be focused on the moment.

“The way we are (approaching) this finals series is just to embrace it. We have got a lot of new faces and a lot of blokes playing in key positions that probably haven’t had the experience, but we’re just embracing every moment as it comes, every session, and that is exciting.

“But we want to win the flag and there is no point saying (because) we finished eighth that if we scrape into a semi or a prelim that’s a win for us. That’s not why you play footy, you play to win premierships. So I believe anything short of that would be disappointing.”

Geelong defeated Melbourne each time they met this year, although both games went down to the wire and were decided by a combined five points.

Stewart said the Cats were not in a position to take those wins for granted, saying everything stepped up a gear in September.

“It was only six or seven weeks ago when we played them, but finals is a whole new season, I see,” he said.

“The home-and-away season qualifies you for finals and then everyone starts on the same slate. Obviously some teams get two chances at it, but I see it as the season really starts now.

“This is what it is all about, so I don’t think the two previous games count for much.”

GEELONG defender Jed Bews says he will be better prepared for finals this time around compared with last year, having been through it all before.

Career outing 71 will be Bews’s fifth final for the Cats in three years, after making his finals debut in the 2016 preliminary final against Sydney and then playing all three Geelong finals last year.

Only four Cats from their Round 23 win over Gold Coast have not played in September, but Bews said that finals experience would hold him in better stead.

“If you asked me last year or the year before I would have said no, but I think after you’ve had a bit of experience you know a bit more what to expect,” he said yesterday.

“But our younger guys will be fine; they’ve shown this year they can play well in the big games, so I think we’ll be right as a team.”

Preparations for Friday night wrap up today as the Cats embark on their final training session, which Bews described as a “touch-up”.

“We had a good week off,” he said. “We trained last Friday, trained really well as a team. (Monday) was a solid session as a team and then tomorrow (Wednesday) we’ll just have a touch-up session and gear up for Friday.”

Bews, pictured, said the past two encounters with Melbourne had been reviewed, but the Cats were focused on what they do best ahead of the elimination final.

“We do a little bit (of study) but not too much. We try and focus on what we can do,” he said.

“We know how they like to play, so we want to try to counter that the best we can.

“As far as those two games, there are little things that we look at to try to exploit, but I think it’s just what we can control and take in the form we’ve had the last couple of weeks and keep riding it.

“The last couple of years it’s shown if you have that form late in the year, you can go well in finals. We’re pretty confident we can continue (on with that).”

“If you asked me last year or the year before I would have said no, but I think after you’ve had a bit of experience you know a bit more what to expect.”