Let actions speak: Bomber

GEELONG coach Mark Thompson has called for the Cats to let their football do the talking in Friday night's preliminary final and not enter into the slanging match started by the Western Bulldogs.

Bulldogs star Jason Akermanis went on television and branded the Cats “cocky” at the weekend after the Dogs easy semi-final win over Sydney Swans.

Akermanis also went on to accuse all-Australian defender Matthew Scarlett of taunting Dogs players during their round 16 clash at Skilled Stadium.

When asked how his players might respond to Akermanis’s claims, the Geelong coach demanded that they just play the game.

“I hope they just go out and play the best football they can play,” Thompson said.

“We try very hard not to be cocky, it’s something we don’t want to be seen as, so hopefully that’s not the case.”

Thompson also cast doubts on the veracity of Akermanis's verbal attack on the Cats.

“I really don’t get too many words out of Matthew Scarlett, so I can’t imagine him sort of getting on the footy field and saying too much, especially in round 16,” Thompson said.

Rodney Eade’s men returned to top form in the semi-final and Thompson said he had been impressed by what he had seen.

“They got back to some of their running best,” he said.

“They won crucial balls and they played a pretty good brand of footy so it’ll be a very good game to watch [this week].”

The premiership coach said when planning for Friday he would take snippets from the two teams’ round 16 meeting as well looking closely at the Bulldogs’ recent matches.

“They ended up third on the ladder, clearly third and we were clearly first,” he said.

“So they’re right up there with one of the better teams in the competition, so anything can happen on a night in a game of football.”

Geelong does hold the aces in one distinct area – experience – and the Cats coach was confident his men would handle the big, preliminary final stage.

“We just know that this time last year going into the preliminary final there were a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.

“Sure, there are a lot of unanswered questions now but we’re feeling that we’ve actually been and lived through that experience and we’re better for it.

“That’s probably the only advantage we have coming into this week.”