Balme’s pie time to boost Geelong

Andrew Mathieson
GEELONG might privately be seeking redemption tomorrow for its worst loss last season but publicly it was putting on a brave face this week.
In the corresponding game at the MCG last year, Collingwood walloped the Cats by 102 points after Geelong failed to lift for the occasion.
Geelong’s selfbelief evaporated after a moraleboosting victory a week earlier over St Kilda had ended a run of four successive losses.
The defeat was also the start of the Cats’ worst three weeks of the year, with heartbreaking home losses against Richmond and West Coast to follow.
But coach Mark Thompson said there was no looking back now after a ninegame winning streak.
“We were terrible that night,” Thompson said of the 2006 flogging.
“That was last year. So many thing have changed that we shouldn’t really think about it, talk about it or even go there.”
Since then, former Collingwood football operations manager Neil Balme has switched allegiances and joined the Cats’ football department.
But Thompson played down Balme’s influence on tomorrow’s game.
“We’ll be silly not to ask him some advice,” he said.
“But it’s not going to help us win the game too much. The game will be won on the park.
“It’s great to have a little bit more knowledge about the plays and their structure but they may have also changed a few and they’ve got some different personnel.”
Returning to the same venue, Thompson expected his fans to rival their Magpie counterparts in one of Geelong’s three home fixtures away from Skilled Stadium.
The MCG game follows a week when inclement weather ensured the stray Cats were stranded without a home.
They were forced to train at a baseball diamond on Wednesday and on a suburban oval today after pleas to MCG officials fell on deaf ears.
“It’s going to be fantastic (tomorrow),” Thompson said.
“We’re expecting a big crowd, no matter what the weather is.
“It’s our home game, so we expect a lot of Geelong supporters there.”
Despite Geelong’s favouritism to take out the minor premiership, Thompson had not contemplated the club pushing to host a home final.
“It has very little to do with me but the capacity (of the ground) is obviously not there,” he said.
“We know the rules the way they currently are and it’s not going to be changed this year.
“I don’t spend too much time thinking about things that are not too important to me in the footy department – that’s up to Frank (Costa) and Brian Cook.”