By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
MANY Geelong players are off enjoying some downtime this week as the Cats enjoy a bye in round eight.
Star defender Harry Taylor will spend a week finding the sun on the Gold Coast.
“I need to replenish my vitamin D stocks because they’ve been a bit low the last couple of weeks,” Taylor laughed.
“We haven’t played well the last two weeks but to get the four points (against Richmond) was really important for us.
“Luckily, some of our key guys got up and lifted for us when they needed to.
“We’ll get onto our mini-break and be happy with our form but we’re certainly not content yet.
“It’s important that we reset and hit the ground running for what’s going to be a big three weeks after that break.”
Geelong’s coaches won’t enjoy too much downtime, with planning for a tough round-nine task away against Fremantle topping their agenda.
Then follows a big Friday night game against North Melbourne at home and a Thursday night fixture in Sydney.
Coach Chris Scott will hope his players are replenished and raring to go after the break.
He freely admits some marked improvement is required just to maintain ladder position, let alone to progress.
Scott was happy with the Cats’ win-loss record so far despite being “a long way from playing our best footy”.
“I think we’re pretty content. We’re in a good spot but well aware that we need to improve.
“I’d prefer that we were seven-zip to be honest. I think we should win every game we play if we play our best – we’ve got high standards.
“But if you take a step back … it looks pretty good.
“I think we’ve been outstanding at times in the first seven weeks but at other times we’ve been pretty average, therein lies the challenge: to make sure that we can maintain that outstanding footy for longer periods.”
Geelong has been susceptible to fast-break footy through the middle of the ground against Port Adelaide, to which it lost, and Richmond, against which it hung on to narrowly win.
Two trends emerged in both games: poor goal-kicking and the up-and-down form of some younger players, with the old hands being relied upon to get the side over the line.
Cats skipper Joel Selwood enjoyed Brownlow Medal favouritism through the first few rounds but the publicity seems to have attracted a tight tag from teams in the last few weeks.
It was only in the last quarter against Richmond that Selwood finally shrugged the tag and had the kind of impact fans are used to seeing from him.
