Dan Lowther on ... the Cats' ambitions

I reckon (top four) is something that I'm aiming towards from end of season expectations. Particularly where we're placed now, sixth, there's a bit of a logjam with teams on a certain amount of points trying to fight for maybe that potentially third or fourth position that might come up for grabs. If we can maybe pinch fourth position, I'd be thrilled to give our players a second opportunity in finals.

To play finals, coming from where we've been over the last few years, is a realistic opportunity that we want to aim for as well, so top four would just be even better.

Dan Lowther on ... the first six rounds

We're happy with the way we've performed. Moving from last year to this year, we just wanted to show signs of growth and improvement. The first four weeks were a bit of a test to see how we were going. To be halfway through the year and sitting on four (wins) and two (losses), we've gone above expectations I think in that space, but not to the point where we're surprised that we've done as well as we have. We're just happy that things have gone along as planned.

We'll recalibrate into the next four games, because they're all important games and we've still got to treat them with the same intensity and the same thought space around that each game is a mini final.

Dan Lowther on ... the Cats' improved scoring

Throwing Shelley (Scott) down forward, clearly she's hitting the scoreboard and she's made an impact, but she's not the only reason we're doing so well on the scoreboard of recent times. She was always going to be a forward for us, it was just a need to play her down back that first few weeks that kind of stalled that kind of approach for opening up our forward half.

I think our midfield, the way they've connected together playing a system that allows them to trust the inside players, the outside runners to run their role. From the inside to out we're a lot cleaner and clearer on expectation and that's certainly helped then the way we move the footy from one end to the other, particularly from (defensive) 50 to forward.

Some of our chains over the last couple of weeks have been really good to watch. I think that's the key, just getting more chains in attack as opposed to trying to fight out a live-play scenario.

Dan Lowther on ... playing at Reid Oval

It's a nice, big ground ... we'll get down there on Saturday afternoon, have a bit of a walk around, a bit of a kick and a catch and just have a look at it physically.

The fact that it's a nice, bigger ground opens up some more space for the kind of game style we're after.

Dan Lowther on ... Rachel Kearns and Renee Garing

Rach trained for the first time with probably 90 per cent contested work on Tuesday, so she got through that okay. She can't wait to play again.

Surprisingly, she's got back so quickly, but she's been given all the green lights from medical (staff), which is good. We just need to see a bit more football - she's missed a lot of football fundamentals over the last few weeks, so we'll just keep getting her better in that space so she's a chance to come back in at some point.

Renee, she's the same, she's been back training for a week now with full contact. She looked pretty sharp on Tuesday as well, so I'm sure she'll be throwing her hat in the ring for selection.

We're pretty lucky, we've got a fairly healthy list at the moment to choose from, which proves a few headaches from a coaching perspective, but it also challenges the playing list as well which is what we want with four weeks to go before potential finals.