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THOMPSON WANTS NOTHING LESS THAN A WIN IN PERTH AFTER a relaxing week’s break, Geelong Coach Mark Thompson says his players are determined to seek a fresh challenge, in a bid to break their horror interstate record, ahead of the clash with the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco this Saturday night. “The break came at a good time, we were pretty excited as a club, after the Brisbane game (In Round 13) because it was a big achievement, a lot of people were pretty happy with themselves,” Thompson said at Geelong training today. “It was good to have a week off, so you could just reflect on that, and have enough time to recover from it.” Whilst Geelong has 7 victories from their past 8 games, more importantly the game against West Coast, is an opportunity to snap a 9-game losing streak interstate. The last time the Cats won an interstate match, was against Sydney at the SCG, Round 12, 2002. Although Geelong has been far more competitive in 2 of their 3 interstate outings this season, after losing to Sydney by 6 points at the SCG, and Port Adelaide by 4 points at AAMI Stadium, Thompson believes it is now time for it’s senior group to stand up when on the road. “This group, as a group, haven’t really performed well enough interstate because they have not won games,” he said. “If you want to become a good side, you've got to beat good opposition, you have got to play at all venues, we don’t travel as much as the Non-Victorian clubs, but we still travel a fair bit, so we have got to win games interstate.” Despite being winless in their last 4 attempts across the Nullarbor, the Cats recent record against the Eagles over their, may surprise a few people to say the least. Geelong has won 2 out of their past 3 encounters at Subiaco against the West Coast Eagles by an average winning margin of 50 points. The Cats will be bolstered by the inclusion of Captain Steven King, after recovering from a hamstring, he injured in Round 11 against the Western Bulldogs. “He’ll play this week, he has overcame his hamstring, we were pretty precautionary against Brisbane, and knowing that we’d desperately wanted him up and going and having a good run in for the rest of the season, we didn’t want to take any risks,” Thompson said. “We want him playing full games and we want him playing decent footy, that’s what we require of our Captain, and we demand it.” Midfielder Corey Enright, will be sidelined for another week with a shoulder problem. “No he won’t play, yeah he is ruled out.” The Cats depart for Perth on Friday, and will conduct a training session on Subiaco Oval that night, with a wet and gloomy outlook expected for Saturday’s game. “We looked at the weather forecast, it looks like it’s going to rain nearly every day (we are) over their, so very similar conditions aren’t they to Melbourne, and what we have been experiencing.” |
ROUND 14:
ROUND 12 MARK OF THE WEEK WINNER, DAVID WOJCINSKI'S (CLICK FOR FULL SIZE)
SKILLED STADIUM REDEVELOPMENT
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