IT'S THE match of the season, the grand final preview – call it what you want, this Sunday's clash between Geelong and St Kilda is big.

Sold out two weeks ago; broadcast live into Melbourne. That big.

For the first time ever, two unbeaten teams will face off this deep into a season. Even at 9-0, the Cats and Saints had made VFL/AFL history, so to keep winning for another month is astounding.

Barring the unlikely circumstances of a draw, one team will taste defeat for the first time this season, something the Cats haven't seen much of anyway after coming out on top in 55 of their last 58 games.

Even Cats coach Mark Thompson – unflappable, calm, eating a salad roll in the coaches' box – admitted he was looking forward to the game when afl.com.au caught up with him last week for an exclusive one-on-one chat, saying while the game wasn't their exclusive focus, they were looking forward to it.

"We go from week to week ... you can't look solely at one week, and that's the St Kilda game," he said.

"But we are looking forward to the game, and when it arrives, we'll focus on it, we'll look at them, we'll study them, and we enjoy playing those big games.

"And I think players, when they get to play in front of massive crowds, or they have these really big games, it's so enjoyable. Everybody's going to look forward to it."

Thompson said St Kilda, despite finishing in the four last year, might have been the team that sneaked under the radar for a lot of people.

"It's funny how teams, from year to year, if they have a bad start they can just fall away.

“But then there's always that team that wasn't expected to do well in many people's eyes, but do well ... and I think with St Kilda, they were there.

“They've always had ability and talent, I think Ross [Lyon] is doing a good job in coaching them, and obviously they've got some good support around them."

In 2008, the Cats had a soft run into the finals, but not this year.

Not only do they have the Saints this weekend, but they face the Brisbane Lions, Hawthorn, Adelaide, Carlton, the Sydney Swans and the Western Bulldogs as they head for September.

Thompson said a tougher run home this year was a positive for his team, and that the club had managed itself, both players and coaches, differently this time around.

"I think it is really important - last year was a bit soft coming home, and we probably nurtured and managed and over-managed our players a bit.

"We've got a different plan this year. We've had a really good think about it over the bye, where we've challenged all our staff to come back and [think about] how we're going to train and do things in the second half.

"We're going to do it differently to last year, we're going to try and do as much right as we can."