A second-half, semi-final resurgence against Port Adelaide provides Geelong with the blueprint for extending their modern-day dominance of Hawthorn to a 12th straight victory.
So says key defender Harry Taylor, who will play his 16th playoff match in only six years in Friday night’s AFL preliminary final at the MCG.
Despite having dropped 11 straight games to the Cats after upsetting them in the 2008 decider – a victory which prompted then Hawks president Jeff Kennett to claim his club had the mental edge over their foes – it is Geelong who will go into the sudden-death game as underdogs.
They lost their opening final to Fremantle and were staring down the barrel of a straight-sets exit before wiping out a 23-point halftime deficit against the Power to win their semi by 16 last weekend.
“We need to play like that and even better because Hawthorn is an amazing side at scoring and defending and we’re not going to be able to give them a big lead and hope to come back,” Taylor said on Monday.
“We’ve relied on our senior players, our key players, far too often to do that for us at stages over the past few years and we don’t want to give them the burden of always doing that.
“We want to go out and start the game with a really fierce sort of style, hopefully get some scores on the board early and take it from there.”
Taylor was echoing the party line on Monday that none of the Cats’ players subscribe to the Kennett curse to explain their remarkable run of success against the Hawks.
“It would be interesting to see how I would feel if we’d lost to them during the season or if we’d lost to them a few more times,” he said.
“But the fact that we haven’t lost to them for a while, it just gives me confidence personally that our team has been able to play well in the bigger games and not just against Hawthorn but against a lot of other quality opposition as well.
“… After the weekend when we were struggling in the first half and to come out in the third quarter and some of our leaders were outstanding – that’s what gives me confidence.”
Taylor has been swung forward with considerable success at times this season, but is likely to be required mostly in the back half on Friday night to help quell the league’s most potent attack led by Jarryd Roughead and returning duo Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli.
“They’ve got some terrific key forwards, some terrific small forwards and some midfielders who are able to push forward and kick goals for them,” said Taylor.
“I’ve always rated Roughead as an unbelievable player – he to me is the one who leads that forward line, sets everyone up, demands that people are in the right position and doing everything to the structure.
“He’s just benefited a bit more from Buddy not being the target so much.”
