Geelong coach Chris Scott says the AFL club’s extremely tough late-season draw could help their efforts to surge up the ladder.
The seventh-placed Cats meet fourth-placed Sydney in a crunch game at the SCG on Friday night.
After playing Port Adelaide and Gold Coast in the following two rounds, their final eight matches include clashes with every other side in the top eight, including another meeting with the Swans.
But rather than hurting the defending premiers’ chances of making a late run up the ladder, Scott believes it could help.
“My preference is to play the good teams, see where we’re at, hopefully get the four points ourselves and take four points away from the teams above us,” the Cats coach told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve always said that we’re hopeful we’ll play our best footy towards the end of the year.”
Scott acknowledged facing the Swans at the SCG posed a huge challenge.
But he said, with James Podsiadly and Allen Christensen expected to return from injury, Geelong would be in the best position selection-wise they had been this season.
And he said Geelong’s style was well suited to the small Sydney venue.
“They play the ground up at the SCG extremely well, but I think that ground suits the way we play as well,” Scott said.
“We’ve got some potentially dominant key forwards and we can move the ball quite quickly in there.”
Scott was also confident speedster Travis Varcoe would play some part in the Cats’ season, despite needing more surgery on a foot fracture that has prevented him playing so far this year.
But he admitted it was unclear what impact Varcoe could have when he did return.
“That’s just so far away and such an unknown,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, he left open the possibility of chasing Port Adelaide midfield star Travis Boak, who is the subject of strong speculation about a potential post-season move to Geelong to be near family.
But he said the Cats would not be making a big-money offer.
“If a player comes into the Geelong footy club from another club in the AFL, they’ve got to fit within our pay structure,” Scott said.
“If anyone thinks they can come in here and get top dollar and come in over the top of our really good players, then they probably should look elsewhere.”
