West Coast’s forward firepower will give Geelong’s defenders some sleepless nights ahead of next week’s sudden-death AFL semi-final at the MCG.
The Eagles loom as a massive danger as the Cats look to avoid being knocked out in straight sets after finishing as minor premiers.
Having squandered a shot at a top-four finish, the Eagles looked back to their imposing best on Thursday night when they belted Essendon by 55 points.
The AFL’s deepest forward line stood tall for the reigning premiers with Jamie Cripps (four goals), Josh Kennedy (four), Liam Ryan (three), Jake Waterman (two), Jack Darling (two) and Willie Rioli (one) all hitting the scoreboard.
It is an unenviable proposition for the Cats following Friday night’s 9.7 (61) to 7.9 (51) qualifying-final defeat to Collingwood.
“They’ve got some bloody good players,” Cats defender Tom Stewart said.
“I’ll probably play on Rioli or Liam Ryan so I’ll have my hands full there.
“We’ll back our structures in and we’ll come ready to play, and we just have to now because there’s no second chances anymore.”
One of Geelong’s best performers on Friday night, Stewart said the Cats needed to move on from the loss quickly.
“We’ve built this year around playing finals footy and to not get the job done tonight is bitterly disappointing,” the All-Australian fullback said.
“In saying that, we only lost by 10 points and we played pretty poorly in the first half. We gave ourselves opportunities and we’ve got to move on now.”
West Coast have built an imposing record at the MCG in recent seasons and the two sides have not met at the venue since the 2011 preliminary final, which the Cats won comfortably on the way to claiming the premiership.
“They’ll be really tough to beat,” Cats coach Chris Scott said.
“We haven’t played them since round five. There’ll be a little bit of an unknown in terms of the preparation.”