Geelong coach Mark Thompson wasn't reading too much into Saturday's lackluster performance against West Coast, saying they have already turned their attention to next week's qualifying final against St Kilda.
The Cats struggled early against the Eagles, producing a number of uncharacteristic turnovers and ball-handling errors in the first half before they got their act together in the third quarter to cruise to a 44-point victory.
The result had no bearing on the final ladder with the Cats already guaranteed to finish in second or third place at the start of play, but Thompson was still pleased with the second half performance.
"We've pretty much forgotten about it already and we're moving forward to the first final against St Kilda," he said after the match.
"It happens a fair bit, Round 22, it was a dead rubber really, it was important for us to play some reasonable footy."
"We didn't start well, but by the end of the game we achieved some of the things we wanted to achieve and we walk away with a 44-point victory with a few players out. It's not so bad."
"We sought of just knew coming to the footy that they were going to try and win the game without getting any bruises and it sort of happened there for a while."
"But we let West Coast back into the contest and made it a bit harder for ourselves but we got the job done in the end and we're pretty pleased with that."
Thompson reserved special praise for Gary Ablett, who provided the Cats with the spark they desperately needed in the third quarter.
With scores level midway through the term, Ablett kicked a miraculous snap and then set up two Tom Hawkins goals in the space of three minutes to send the Cats on their way to victory.
"He was fantastic, I thought in the second quarter he was almost one of the only players that played well for us," Thompson said of Ablett.
"Third quarter he was outstanding, it was good to watch him play so good."
Geelong were forced into three late changes for the match with Joel Selwood, Corey Enright and Shannon Byrnes all forced out.
Thompson insisted that they weren't rested and the club had to stay true to their policy of managing players leading into the finals.
"We heard pretty early that Shannon Byrnes had a fever and the other boys were always going to have a bit of a look at this morning and that whole process of not taking too many risks into games and getting people ready for finals," Thompson said.
"They're not just a rest, it's a legitimate soreness of the glute for Selwood and Enright's got a bit of a sore foot."
"They are injuries but we still have a very cautious approach in our management of players into the finals."