Justin Longmuir may have been proud of how the forward line shaped up against Sydney in round nine, but he knows that Saturday’s clash with Geelong will require another step up.
The Senior Coach said Walyalup took advantage of an understrength Sydney backline that was impacted by injuries, and young forwards Luke Jackson (21), Jye Amiss (19) and Josh Treacy (20) will be up against an experienced Cats line-up which includes Tom Stewart, Jake Kolodjashnij and Mitch Duncan.
“It's a different challenge this weekend, we’re playing against a more mature backline,” Longmuir said.
“Sydney had their issues with (injuries to) their tall backs in particular and it’s been an ongoing process trying to get our players to play with a bit more isolation.
“There’s the confidence piece where JT (Treacy) went back and worked on a few areas of his game and he’s come back a more confident player.
“Jye is getting more games under his belt and Jacko is feeling a bit more confident and familiar in his surroundings and playing with his teammates and he’s taking more of his opportunities.
“It's been a work in progress and it clicked for us on the weekend. We have a good challenge coming up against a really mature backline.”
Longmuir played down the suggestion that the reigning premiers would want revenge for Fremantle’s win against the Cats last year at GMHBA Stadium, and added that Walyalup needed to ‘respect’ the best team in the competition.
“I’m not sure they’ll be framing it up like that (a revenge game),” Longmuir said.
“You can probably forget about last year and focus on the now.
“They’re playing good footy, since round three they’ve only lost one game. They’re number one in a lot of different areas.
“They’ll come over here and we’ll respect them and we need to look at areas where we feel like we can get them and we need to play our brand as well and keep building on last week.
“I probably don’t look at last year too much, it’s a new challenge.”
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