IT’S BACK TO BASICS, SAYS JOEL
What continues to drive milestone Cat
A FOCUS on getting the basics right is all it will take for Geelong to regain its form against North Melbourne tonight, according to Geelong skipper Joel Selwood.
Selwood said some criticism aimed at his side’s recent form slump had been unfair, but he admitted the Cats “just need to play better”.
“We work in an industry that pays a lot, a lot of money to have those opinions and we’ve just got to live with them whether you like them or not, it doesn’t matter,” Selwood said.
“The game can be pretty simple and towards the end of the year too with finals.
“It is the simple game that usually wins it at the end of the day, but normally one side does it better than all the rest.
“We’ve just got to work on a few of those things and we’re confident we can get back to some good form.”
The Cats welcome back Harry Taylor and Luke Dahlhaus and have injected pace into the line-up with Quinton Narkle and Brandan Parfitt making their returns.
Scott Selwood and Lachie Henderson have been omitted to make way, while Jordan Clark (elbow) and Gary Rohan (knee) will miss through injury.
“There are some unlucky guys going out and some lucky guys going in, so we’ve just got to keep finding that right balance too and this week we’ll work towards that,” Selwood said.
“We’ve just got to play a bit better as individuals and that will rub off on the team.”
While coach Chris Scott questioned why his side had failed to get up for games in July, Selwood said his teammates were aware of what was at stake in the next three weeks.
“You want to play better because (finals) is only around the corner too,” he said.
“We don’t go into games wanting to lose them, but we’ve obviously got ourselves to a stage now where we’re closer to the end and we’re going to give ourselves a real good shot.”
Teammate Mitch Duncan, who plays in his 200th game tonight, is backing the club’s experienced players to lead the team out of its form slump.
“Obviously you thrive on the enthusiasm of the young guys,” he said.
“But the senior players have been through a lot of the scenarios before and we’re lucky we’ve got a really senior experienced group of players and coaches that help us in these situations. It’s just getting back to basics for us, playing good fundamental footy and working really hard.
“They’re the things that are probably letting us down when we aren’t playing well, but when we are playing well, they’re the things we’re doing well, so it’s getting back to those.”