GEELONG defender Harry Taylor is confident he has enough match practice under his belt to be ready for round one despite missing the Cats’ first JLT hit-out.

Taylor told SEN that the hard yards he has put in on the training track will have him primed to take on Melbourne in just over two weeks’ time.

“We actually really value our training and the match play we do at training these days. It’s not like the old days where the footys stayed away until January and you just did the running,” he said.

 “We pretty much do our match day drills now from day one (of pre-season). We think that it really helps us, and puts us in a really good position. We have 37-38 players doing some really solid match play.”

“The experience that I’m getting on Tom Hawkins in those drills, Stewart Crameri in those drills I think is going to hold me in really good stead for round one and the rest of the season.”

 Taylor says the Cats will be looking to improve on last week’s effort in Townsville, with their round one opponent in the Demons already showing some ominous form.

 “They looked slick (last night), they looked fast, they played with aggression and they looked like they were in really good form already.”

 “We were pretty average last week, so it’s important we start to get a few things right before what’s going to be a massive round one game,” he said.