Gary Ablett has declared red-hot Geelong can win the AFL flag from the lower reaches of the eight as he prepares for a return to the finals after an eight-year absence.
Ablett was among the Cats’ best performers in Saturday’s 102-point thumping of former team Gold Coast at GMHBA Stadium.
Depending on the result of Sunday’s clash between Melbourne and GWS, Geelong will end the home and away season in seventh or eighth spot, with their elimination-final opponents yet to be decided.
The Cats would need to win four straight finals to claim a first premiership since 2011.
But such is their recent form and the personnel at their disposal that Ablett can see no reason why they can’t repeat the Western Bulldogs’ history-making run all the way from seventh to glory in 2016.
“That’s why we play football, to play finals and have a crack at the premiership,” said two-time Brownlow medallist Ablett, who returned home for a second stint to the Cats this year after seven seasons at the Suns.
“We do believe that (we can win), we know we have got the team to do it.
“You obviously have to peak at the right time and you have to play four quarters of football.
“We were a bit inconsistent with that throughout the year but we have finished the season off strongly and that’s what we wanted to do.”
The Cats won their final two regular-season games – both at GMHBA Stadium – against Fremantle and Gold Coast by a combined margin of 235 points.
The 34-year-old Ablett has got better the longer the season has gone on, especially after overcoming an early hamstring problem.
“I made sure I gave it the time it needed – the body is feeling good,” he said.
“It is about peaking at the right time and the guys are really excited to go.”
The Suns did not play in a single finals match during Ablett’s seven years on the Gold Coast, a far cry from his first stint at Geelong when he was a key member of the 2007 and 2009 flag-winning outfits.
Coach Chris Scott sensed that Ablett was craving the return to the September action.
“His form is really good and he is not dissimilar to (Patrick) Dangerfield in that he has had some minor bits and pieces this year but I don’t think he would have been playing better or feeling better than he is right now throughout the whole season,” said Scott.
“We almost had the comical situation a few weeks ago where he was playing a first Friday night game at the MCG since the 2010 preliminary final. The great player has been off the big stage for too long.”
Geelong have bowed out in a preliminary final in the past two years to Sydney and Adelaide.