Hard-nosed Geelong midfielder Max Rooke says the Cats will benefit from a weekend off as players overcoming injury push their case for AFL preliminary final berths.
Geelong's convincing 58-point win over St Kilda at the MCG means the premiership favourites can sit back and watch the Western Bulldogs and Sydney battle it out for the chance to play the Cats the following weekend.
But the victory was not without cost, with midfielder Brent Prismall going down with a serious knee injury, while half-forward Paul Chapman sat out the second half with hamstring soreness.
Chapman is confident of recovering in time for the preliminary final and with David Wojcinski (Achilles) and James Kelly (quad) also hoping to return from injury absences, Rooke said the extra break would be handy.
“It's just a good chance to freshen up ... guys like Chappy and that, make sure we can get them right, so it's good,” Rooke said.
He said the Cats would not alter their routine much over the next fortnight.
“Just rest up I guess the next few days, try to get everyone as fit as we can for the next game, obviously wait and see who we play and then prepare for them just like we have done all year and get back into it,” Rooke said.
“Obviously we're not playing on the weekend, so we've got to probably get a bit more out of training, just really make sure our intensity at training’s spot on and we don't really switch off at all.”
The Cats were delighted with their performance, particularly the way they dominated contested situations.
“We're very happy with how we went in the contested ball, I think we won by over 30 (contested possessions) in the end so that was a great result for us,” Rooke said.
“It’s something that we always try to win the contested ball.”
With last year’s premiership behind them, Rooke said the club was feeling little pressure this year.
“Last year we were a bit more anxious and that, we'd played finals before, but finishing on top there was a bit more pressure on our shoulders and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to deliver,” he said.
“But I think this year we've got a bit more confidence, it’s not really the unknown any more, we've done it before.”
