GEELONG won’t overload its players with information heading into Saturday’s grand final clash with Sydney, according to assistant coach James Kelly.
The Cats will battle a Swans line-up renowned for its toughness around the ball, and with the opening to the match expected to be pressure-packed, Kelly says the messaging to the players will remain similar to the rest of the 2022 season.
“I think the best way is just to keep it simple,” Kelly said.
“I think a lot of time for coaches, the best thing to do is to step back a bit and stay out of the way.
“We don’t want to be complicating the game early on and giving them different things to do and different things to think about.
“We want them to settle as best they can, start well, and just go out and be themselves and do what they do.”
Kelly is confident Geelong can cope with whatever Sydney throws at them in the frantic first few minutes.
“I like to think our pressure’s pretty good, too,” he said.
“It’s two grand final teams; they’re going to be going toe-to-toe and hammer-and-tongs around the ball early.
“We feel really confident that whatever happens in the game, our players are in the right mindset, and they’re capable of doing what they need to.”
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Geelong had its main training session behind closed doors this morning.
Youngster Max Holmes remains the talking point as he looks to overcome a minor hamstring issue in just eight days.
Kelly said today’s session wouldn’t be a final indicator of whether the winger plays against Sydney.
“It’s one day in his week, and every day for everyone is important,” Kelly said.
“Max has got some processes that he still has to go through, but my understanding is today is not any more important than tomorrow or Friday.
“He just has to progress well today, and we’ll keep assessing it day-on-day as they have been so far.”
If Holmes is ruled out, Geelong has several options to replace him.
Mark O’Connor, who was last week’s medi-sub, Brandan Parfitt and Sam Menegola are the most likely to replace the 20-year-old if he doesn’t come up.
“We talk about that sort of stuff constantly, and those sort of things, they’re a little bit hypothetical,” Kelly said.
“We want to be in the mindset of giving Max every chance to play.
“Having said that, we do go through the process of ‘who (do) we want to bring in? What (do) we want the team to look like? What the best balance of the team is to play Sydney?’
“We’re just constantly working through that as best we can.”
Twitter: @krockfootball
