Despite inconsistencies in the win, Geelong skipper Joel Selwood says his side gained confidence against Essendon as they build towards round one.

The Cats overcame a 40-point half time deficit against the Bombers in Bendigo in their final JLT Community Series fixture, running out victors by 22 points.

An inspired third-term from Selwood was a catalyst in changing Geelong’s fortunes and the captain was pleased to see his players respond.

“[It was a] tale of two halves,” the 28-year-old told Cats Media post-match.

“Early we just weren’t winning enough of the ball around the contest. We were chasing them a fair bit – they’re pretty quick when they want to move the ball and we allowed them to do that a little bit.”

“We changed up a few little things at half time but it wasn’t much apart from just winning the ball and giving our forwards a better chance of winning it instead of just lobbing it in there.”

“We did want to get it right and we did want to play well today and I’m glad that we turned it around and guys that didn’t have a great first half were able to play better in the second half.”

“It takes confidence into next week and let’s get rolling and get into round one.”

The focus now shifts solely to round one in Perth against a Fremantle side many – including Selwood – have tipped to be much improved in 2017.

“We’ve had three good hit outs in the lead-up. We’ve played some quality sides and now it is time to take on Freo,” Selwood said.

“They’re playing some good footy, we expect them to play really well, they’ve got a couple of handy inclusions back that they missed last year and then they’ve topped it up with a couple of good players throughout the draft.” 

“We look forward to playing them.”