Reliable defender Andrew Mackie says the Cats are happy with their position at 6-0 at this point of the season.

Admitting the team has been patchy at times, Mackie said the team was lucky enough to have scored heavily in their good patches of play. But deeper into the season, come finals time, Mackie believes the Cats must be the best defensive team in the competition to taste success again.

With the challenge looming of Friday night’s battle of the undefeated sides, Mackie states that no Jared Rivers is a big loss against the Bombers’ tall forward line.

“Riv is a big loss for us. Essendon are up and about, flying. There’s no doubt that we as tall defenders rely on pressure up the ground so if our midfielders put pressure on, force them wide, all that sort of stuff then we’ve got a better chance .”

Appearing On the Couch on Fox Footy last night, Mackie was quizzed about the young players of the side. With nine players in last week’s side having played under 50 games, the youth within the team is often underestimated.

“Scotty’s (Chris Scott) said from the outset that he’s not going to play anyone no matter what age if they don’t deserve it.

“So these guys come into the team knowing they deserve their spot. Obviously they’re skilful; they’re talented so it’s just a matter of that confidence.”

The conversation looked back on Mackie’s 179 game career and with a 78% winning rate, he counts himself lucky.

“I’ve been lucky. I come to a club, lucky enough to get drafted to Geelong and be surrounded by absolute superstars of the competition.
“Great club, great coaches and great people.

“We rock up happy to train every day which is probably why we play good footy. We’re in a good environment, we enjoy playing with each other, we enjoy training and enjoy doing hard work and obviously enjoying winning.”

Through all the greatness there were low points for Mackie. After missing the semi and preliminary finals of 2010 his confidence was shot.

“I got dropped for a couple of finals and I found it pretty hard. The hardest bit is then you go home or do a bit of travelling and it was on my mind. I’m a pretty proud sort of person and have certain standards for myself and I wasn’t meeting them.

“I’d had a couple of good years as far as being part of a great team, tasted success and to get dropped was sort of an ego hit. But more than that, I wasn’t happy with what my output was.”

And when asked whether there is another level to his game, whether he can improve again, the high standards he sets for himself were obvious.

“I’m that sort of bloke and as I sit here right now and think back to Saturday night’s game I wasn’t happy with a couple of things out of that game.

“A couple of missed tackled and a couple of other things, I’m looking forward to working on them and as you said, lifting the bar.”