THE THOUGHT of Tom Lonergan watching the curtain come down on his career from his couch inspired Geelong's close-knit backline to make sure he hadn't played his last game, says Harry Taylor. 

Lonergan, 33, battled food poisoning from a dodgy sausage roll all day on Friday, and was ruled out shortly before the Cats' do-or-die clash with Sydney.

The premiership defender drove to Melbourne hoping to feel well enough to play, but went downhill once arriving at the MCG and ended up driving back down the highway again.

Having announced his retirement along with fellow backman Andrew Mackie at the season's end, a loss on Friday night would have signalled the end of their careers. 

But Taylor said Lonergan's absence gave his teammates even more of a reason to win.

"Certainly us as defenders, we spoke about that, we wanted to make sure that it wasn't his last game the previous week," Taylor said on Saturday morning, after the 59-point win. 

"We wanted him to have another crack at it. 

"We didn't exactly need any extra motivation, there was a lot on the line, but just knowing that a good mate had had such a great career for us would potentially end the way it did was something that I was certainly spurred on by and wanted to play well to make sure he got another shot." 

Lonergan's late withdrawal initially threw the Cats into a tailspin, with coach Chris Scott ringing Taylor at 1.30pm on Friday to tell him not only would he be playing back, he'd be lining up on Lance Franklin.

As the Cats' key position swingman, Taylor spends a portion of his week planning for a job at either end, but wouldn't have seriously considered playing on the Coleman medallist with such little notice. 

The chat with Scott was abrupt; he bluntly told Taylor there was a chance he'd play back, on Franklin, and to just "go out and do it".

"That was about the length of the conversation," Taylor said.

"I just said, 'No worries, I'll be ready'." 

Taylor said his past experience of playing on Franklin meant he had an understanding of how the Swans' goalkicker moved and his strengths. 

While Franklin wore sizeable padding on his corked right thigh and didn't run with his usual explosiveness, Taylor – and Lachie Henderson – kept him to just three behinds. 

Looking ahead to the Crows, Taylor isn't sure which end of Adelaide Oval he'll line up at in Friday night's preliminary final. 

Lonergan will return, but another defender in Tom Stewart will have scans on Saturday afternoon on the hamstring that tightened up in the third quarter, which could affect Taylor's positioning.

"I'm not entirely sure, we didn't speak about it after the game, but I'll be prepared for anything," he said.

"I wasn't overly prepared to be playing on the best forward in the game on the weekend but who knows what could happen this week.

"There's probably a chance it won't be in the midfield but at either end of the ground, I'm sure there's a chance I could be there at some point." 

The Cats had optional recovery at the club on Saturday and are set to travel to Adelaide on Thursday afternoon. 

They'll face a well-rested Crows' outfit that will has played just one game in three weeks, which Taylor said could be an advantage to them. 

"It's interesting because if I was on that side the fence I would probably say I'd be happy to be having the rest, but now I'm on this side, I'm happy that we've actually played and played well," he said. 

"We haven't necessarily had a game where we've played so well leading into a preliminary for a few years. 

"That's something we should be excited about – we've got some really good form heading into this game, whereas the last few we haven't played all that well.

"Interstate against Adelaide, it's an amazing place to play football … I can only imagine how loud it's going to be on Friday night."