The Cats return to football following a week off, and travel west to face the West Coast Eagles on their home deck of Domain Stadium.
Cats Media has identified four points of interest to follow:
Post-bye blues
The Cats have only won twice on the back of a bye since 2011 – and only once if you don’t count last year’s Qualifying Final win over Hawthorn following the controversial pre-finals bye.
Senior coach Chris Scott says it’s an issue the club is aware of and measures have been put in place to address it, but the reality is Geelong comes back from the week off via the toughest road trip in football.
The Eagles in Perth are no easy task, but what better way to break those post-bye blues?
Which West Coast out west?
A team many tipped to be a genuine premiership threat, West Coast sits just outside the eight at 6-5. It’s a form line full of questions and inconsistency and one which truly does reflect the Eagles’ season to date.
West Coast have now lost three in a row, one of which was an eight-point loss to the Giants at Domain Stadium in round 10. They started their season with a solid performance away to North Melbourne, and a win at the Adelaide Oval over Port Adelaide was stirring. But four of their six wins in 2017 have come at home and with those surrounded by poor showings interstate, the label “flat-track bullies” has become synonymous with Adam Simpson’s side.
Dropping this one against Geelong would mean it’s four consecutive defeats for West Coast for the first time since 2014 – a year the club failed to make finals. And while Thursday night will do nothing to dispel criticism of their performances away from home, the Eagles will be out to get their season back on track against the Cats.
Missing spearheads
Both sides will be plugging two full-forward sized holes on Thursday night, with the Cats missing Tom Hawkins through suspension and the Eagles losing Josh Kennedy to injury.
Purely on the numbers, West Coast gets 3.4 goals per game from their spearhead while Geelong sees 2.7 on average from Hawkins. Where those missing goals come from is the question of the night.
The Cats have brought ruck-forward Rhys Stanley to Perth, and the 200cm 100kg big man is certainly capable inside 50. Daniel Menzel is always in the action and has kicked 25 goals from 10 games while midfielders Patrick Dangerfield, Joel Selwood and Steven Motlop have pushed forward with good success.
The man of the moment, however, is undoubtedly defender turned forward Harry Taylor.
Still learning the tricks of the trade in front of goal, Taylor has been up and down so far in 2017. His best – a five-goal haul in round 9 against the Bulldogs – suggests the Hawkins-less Cats have nothing to worry about, but how he deals with the opposition’s best defender is a scenario we’re yet to see play out.
Conversely, the Eagles may also need to rob Peter to pay Paul by deploying Mitch McGovern forward at times, leaving Eric Mackenzie, Will Schofield and the newly-included Tom Barrass to patrol the defensive half. They’ll also be seeking greater output from Jack Darling and former Roo Drew Petrie but have dropped crafty forward Josh Hill.
Scooter’s second home-coming
A former vice-captain and club best and fairest winner at West Coast, Scott Selwood returns to Domain Stadium for the first time as a Cat on Thursday night.
Having suffered through a number of injury-plagued seasons, the 27-year-old is in quality form to face his old side and will be confident after his most complete performance in years back in round 11 against Adelaide, when he kept star midfielder Rory Sloane quiet while gaining 25 disposals and 10 tackles himself.
