Geelong have taken a liking to the Gabba in a sign that Brisbane’s home ground advantage might not be quite so significant in their AFL preliminary final meeting.
The Cats will take on the Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night after producing their most complete performance of the season in a 68-point thumping of Collingwood at the same venue.
It left Geelong with an unblemished record this season at the ground that will host the 2020 grand final – the first held outside Victoria in league history – with four consecutive wins by an average margin of 56 points.
A crowd of up to 25,000 predominantly Lions fans will be on hand for the preliminary final, but Cats coach Chris Scott is unfazed.
“Brisbane will be used to it, but it’s very rare that you get to play an away preliminary final, having played four games at the venue in preparation,” Scott said.
“We’re only (based) an hour bus ride up the road (on the Gold Coast), which we’re used to.
“It would be logical that they’d go in favourites, given they played so well against Richmond and they’ll have a home crowd advantage, but I think there’ll be a few Catters’ here as well.”
Scott wouldn’t reveal all the reasons he believes Geelong have played well at the Gabba, but noted that they have been incredibly accurate in front of goal in their four visits, kicking 59.37 in total.
“The guys who take the shots, (Gary) Rohan and (Tom) Hawkins, even (Patrick) Dangerfield here, it just seems to set up well for them for some reason,” Scott said.
“There are some things that I have a theory on that I’m not prepared to elaborate on publicly, but we’ve played here three times and we’ve played well here every single time.”
Plenty was made of Geelong’s poor finals record leading into the Collingwood clash, with 12 losses in their previous 16 finals matches.
But Scott said it had not affected his players in any way as they bounced back from the qualifying final defeat to Port Adelaide.
“It’s a bad mindset to be in that you’ve got extra motivation because people who don’t live in your world are saying,” Scott said.
“I think our motivation is much more pure than that.”