Shooting for its seventh straight win against Essendon on Saturday night, Thompson said there was still plenty of room for improvement.

``I think we've got a long way to improve,'' he said before training last night.

``There are still so many areas even from the weekend's game that suggests to me that there is a lot of improvement.''

For a side whose current form is only equalled by premiership favourite Port Adelaide, it is an ominous sign for the sides that face Geelong in the last seven rounds of the home and away season.

``The thing we've got to improve is the individuals and we have to continue to do that because whilst everyone's saying Geelong is in great form and playing very good football, the best they've played all season, I can still see so many things we need to improve and they're the things we'll work on,'' he said.

``You have new development for young players all the time and on a personal level there's huge upside.''

He said the young players were well drilled in what they had to do on and off the field and he held no fear the club's mid-season success would go to their heads.

``At the moment it seems the players are pretty settled and pretty focused,'' he said.

Given Geelong's current form Thompson said he would back his players in against Essendon rather than approach the game from a defensive angle.

He said he would still assign some tagging roles to Essendon's danger players but it wouldn't be ``18 blokes tagging 18 blokes''.

``We're not going into the game like that,'' he said.

``There'll be some blokes to play a defensive role (but) most of the side will go out and chase the ball.''