Lyon expects physical Cats

ST KILDA coach Ross Lyon expects Geelong to continue its recent trend of trying to quash any challenger to its crown as the best side in the AFL when the sides meet on Sunday.

Lyon said he expected a bruising encounter from the Cats as they attempted to assert themselves in the match.

"I think we have all noticed that anyone on the rise, they like to stamp their authority and be physical," Lyon said at Linen House Oval on Friday morning.

 "So we are aware of that. [If you] want to be the best in the AFL you've got to cope with a lot of things and this is a new challenge for our group.

"We have risen to every challenge so far this year and this is another one we want to confront and work our way through."

Former Geelong midfielder and assistant coach Leigh Tudor has emerged as a secret weapon for the Saints.

"We have Leigh Tudor here who has given us a good insight into their mindset, and obviously they want to stamp their challengers and it is going to be very physical," Lyon said.

"[Tudor gave us] an insight into how they like to move the ball and how they like to structure up and what they don't like so we'll absorb some of that and implement some of it.

"But at the end of the day it is about our style and getting first hands on the footy."

However, Lyon admitted keeping a close eye on the Cats for some time.

"I think every club in the competition looks at the benchmark team based on performance but we have our own internal indicators which we don't advertise," Lyon said.

"It is about repetition of the basics; contested ball, effective tackling and good ball use, so we measure ourselves internally against where we want to head.

"But clearly they have been able to set a standard of excellence, and our aim is to be excellent, a great team ourselves. We are not there yet but we have taken some significant steps along the way to bridge that gap."

Lyon said win, lose or draw the Saints would learn a lot from the sold-out clash at Docklands.

"We have learned a lot out of our losses; the prelim last year against Hawthorn was significant and our last practice game we lost by 80 points to Port Adelaide.

"So clearly we have been able to learn some lessons and improve."