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CATS COACH SAYS POWER POISED TO ...
GEELONG coach Chris Scott says he expects Port Adelaide to take the game on this Saturday night and trusts his team will not fall for the trap of underestimating the Power in front of their home crowd.
Port has beaten just one team currently in the top eight this year – an away win against fifth-placed West Coast – and has fallen to Brisbane (seventh), Richmond (eighth), Collingwood (third), Adelaide (fourth) and Fremantle (sixth).
But Scott said with the likely return of key personnel, including Charlie Dixon, Brad Ebert and captain Ollie Wines, the Cats had too much respect to take the Power lightly. “Their best is good, and the numbers reflect that as well,” Scott said.
“They have had a little bit of a strange month with the trip to China and then over to Perth last week, so they haven’t had a lot of continuity, which I think they will get over the next month playing at Adelaide Oval.
“In that respect it has been a bit stop-start and hard to get a really clear reading on how they have been playing, but if you just look at the numbers, their contested numbers are really strong and when they use the ball the way we think they would like it is pretty hard to stop.
“I suspect that is the way they would be thinking, they would back themselves to play an attacking brand of footy against us and I think they have proven more than a few times this year that when they do that they are very difficult to stop.”
Geelong will celebrate the joint milestones of veteran defender Harry Taylor (250 games) and midfielder Cam Guthrie (150 games) on Saturday, with both players earning Scott’s praise for their selflessness and dedication to the team throughout their careers.
The Cats’ coach acknowledged the club had made some minor tweaks to their program during the mid-season bye but said he was confident his team’s recent run of outs after the break would not repeat in Adelaide.
“Interestingly, I did bring it (Geelong’s post-bye ost-bye record) up post-game in the Richmond week and a third of the room had no idea what I was talking about, which speaks to the fact we have some new people in the team and it is a new year and it just feels different to us
“I generally think that 2012 doesn’t have much relevance to 2019, but I have said a few times that one of the things we
have e endeavoured to do this year is when there is an issue — even if it is really minor — just confront it and don’t pretend it is not happening.
“So we spoke about it last week, but we’re done speaking about it now, we have got to focus on the really positive things we have got going into the game, the most important of which is to plan well and continue to build good form.”