Tom Atkins and Nina Morrison spoke to media on Tuesday ahead of an exciting period at the Geelong Football Club. 

The AFLW Cats are set to kick off their 2024 season this Saturday night at GMHBA Stadium, while the Geelong AFL team is preparing for their Qualifying Final against Port Adelaide next Thursday. 

See the top quotes from the press conference below. 

Morrison on the Cats mindset ahead of the 2024 season

The messaging has been really strong all preseason, that we are giving ourselves every opportunity and every chance to compete.

Dan has been really clear on that messaging, that you set yourself up and go into games with that opportunity.

We will land where we will, but we are really excited that we have got a group that is continuing to get better and continuing to improve week on week.

We will go in with that mindset and see what happens. 

Atkins on Geelong's return to the AFL Finals Series

It definitely felt weird last year missing Finals, it didn't feel like us.

I am very fortunate to be at this club, where we have had such great success over the years and it was an outlier in my career.

We have made plenty of Preliminary Finals in the time I have been here, so to miss Finals definitely stung and I think that was seen in the way we came back for preseason.

We really got after it, you combine that attitude with some of the improvement we have had from our younger players, we feel confident that our footy is the best. 

Morrison on the Takeaways from the AFLW Practice Games

Practice matches are always a good chance to see where you are at.

You spend most of preseason playing against yourself, so it is nice to come up against some opposition and clear up a few things that you might need to tweak heading into round one.

There are certainly things we took from those games, positives and negatives but there were things that we could work on.

We will be better for it coming into this weekend and we will be really sharp against Melbourne. 

Atkins on the challenge awaiting next Thursday night

We have been over there to face Port Adelaide twice in Finals recently, it is always a big challenge playing them at their home ground.

We are very comfortable at Adelaide Oval though, we play there at least once a year and with Gather Round it becomes twice a year.

We are very keen to get over there and are looking forward to coming up against them. 

Morrison on the Cats season opener this weekend

It always feels a bit that way, you get to the end of preseason and it feels like its dragging but then the season comes around really quickly.

The season itself goes by in a flash as well, I think everyone will come Saturday raring to go.

We know that we are well prepared and we have a good preseason under our belt, we will take full confidence into the game that we have done what we needed to do leading in. 

Atkins on how the Cats are treating the week off

We are treating it as an extended break in between games, rather than a bye or a week off.

We were back in the club pretty early, didn't have too many days off after the West Coast game.

I think everyone is super excited to get over to Adelaide and get our Finals campaign started.