By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
GEELONG’S cat nap finally comes to an end when it meets North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night after a 20-day break.
Only the two points Geelong received for the cancelled game against Adelaide in respect for the shocking death of coach Phil Walsh separates the Cats from North Melbourne.
Recent games between the two have often been tight tussles, even though the scoreboard margin may have opened up at times.
Match ups between the blue and white stripes and hoops are usually intense affairs and given the respective ladder positions this will be no different.
The noises coming from the Kangaroos camp are all centred on responding from the meek 55 point drubbing at the hands of the lowly Gold Coast Suns last week.
North Melbourne beat Geelong in the meeting between the two in round four at Simonds Stadium in the Stevie J substitute game.
Geelong was missing Jimmy Bartel, Tom Lonergan, Mathew Stokes and Andrew Mackie in that game but all will be front and centre this week.
Geelong coach Chris Scott declared Bartel a certain starter after his stellar comeback in the VFL last week.
“He’s missed a lot of footy but he was exceptionally good in the VFL last week, so that’s a little bit of a pointer to what we’ll see on Saturday night,“ Scott said.
“But we’ve played virtually the whole season without him. Hopefully he’ll come in and add something rather than be the player that we build our whole game around.“
Scott also nominated James Kelly, who suffered a high ankle sprain against Port Adelaide in round 11, as probable for the Roos clash.
The extended break, coming on top of a scheduled bye, “presented some challenges but presented some opportunity as well,” Scott acknowledged.
“If you look back over our year, the numbers certainly show that off short breaks, we’ve been good and off longer breaks, we haven’t been so good,“ Scott said.
“The coaching staff have a responsibility to assess it but I don’t think we need to plant that seed in the mind of our players.
“I’ve got a bit of respect for their football intellect and they understand what we’re walking into on Saturday night.“
The coach admitted his side had been itching to get out on the ground after the unexpected loss to Melbourne in the Corey Enright 300 milestone.
The break will be 20 days by the time the Cats run on to Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
“We worked on some aspects of our game we wouldn’t have been able to do if we had a game on the weekend.
“The competition is evenly poised. It gets harder and harder for us. North has been particularly good at Etihad under the roof.”
