Despite a disappointing end to Friday night Cats defender Andrew Mackie is confident the team can find their legs again before the finals hit in five weeks.

Mackie believed the Cats poor defeat against the Roos was due to a number of significant factors that prevented them from playing their own game.

“We just weren’t able to get going and it’s a credit to North Melbourne on how well they played. They beat us at the stoppages and they won crucial contests,” Mackie told K-Rock Radio.  

“There’s no doubt there is hard work to be done to achieve what we aspire to do.”

The delivery inside 50 was one of the main areas of play that let the Cats down. Even though Geelong finished with 59 inside-50s compared to North’s 46, it was their accuracy and moving of the ball that affected their ability to score.  

“We weren’t good to Tommy Hawkins last night and the ball use going through the middle to the centre forward area wasn’t great all night, and it kicked started a lot of their (North Melbourne) game.”  

Mackie says the Cats understand how much work is ahead of them to secure a successful finals campaign and from now on no one is going to inhibit them.

“No one hands premierships to you, you’ve got to work hard all year for them and it’s not easy, it’s a long grinding year and there’s no doubt we’ve got to find our legs again and just keep working on our game,” Mackie explained.

“What you want to do now is start playing some decent footy that you know is going to stack up and realistically we’re not doing that at the moment and that is something we have to get right.

“We’re all in for the fight so there’s no worries about that, it’s just a matter of pointing out the key areas that we need to get better in and keep working at it.

“We know there’s a prize there for us as long as we’re willing to do the right stuff and get our game going.”

The loss of James Podsiadly and Allen Christensen left a noticeable hole in the Cats forward line on Friday night. According to Mackie both players are a crucial component to the Cats’ structure and their firing presence was missed.

Mackie also believes the Cats will have to test out Paul Chapman’s legs in the AFL before the season closes for finals.

“Given there are only four AFL games before the finals, I agree that you’ve actually got to see how he holds up in the next level because there is massive difference,” Mackie said.

“We do need to know before if you were going to whack him into a finals game to see that he’s doing the right thing and the hamstring is holding up well.”