HUNDREDS of Geelong fans gathered at Skilled Stadium as coach Mark Thompson put the Cats through their paces for the final time before tonight's do-or-die preliminary final against Collingwood.
For all the rhetoric of the club keeping the lid on talk of a premiership, the word was never far from the lips of success-starved Cats fans.
Even club legend Bob Davis was bouncing around the boundary excited at the prospect that his reign as Geelong's most recent premiership coach might soon be over.
Geelong's football manager Neil Balme, whom many credit with the team's meteoric rise this season, emphasised the club had not got ahead of itself.
"You prepare for what's in front of you, and that's a game," Balme said. "It's not two weeks, it's one week and it's not even one game, it's one quarter, and it's not even one quarter, it's one contest."
The squad of senior players went through a brisk one-hour training session and showed no sign that this week was different to any other.
On Sunday, the Cats' VFL side take on Coburg in the grand final, and should the senior side make it through, all players would train and remain in contention for grand final selection.
On Monday, nine Cats were selected in the All-Australian team — and none from Collingwood — but Balme reinforced the adage that a champion team would always beat a team of champions.
"It's terrific recognition for each of the individuals, but I think if you ask all of them, it's how they play in the team that's most important," he said. "That's what we all want to see. We don't want to see a bunch of stars running around, we want to see a very good team.".
Cats' fans from as far afield as Cairns and Israel watched as the premiership favourites hit the track fresh from a week's break.
Davis said the 2007 Geelong unit was the best since the 1953 team, an ominous comparison as that side lost to Collingwood three times, including in the grand final.
The club legend said the players would be delighted rather than intimidated by the sell-out crowd, expected to top 90,000.
"They will be delighted and they'll play equally as well as they have for, well three-quarters of the season," Davis said.
Balme said the blockbuster crowd, which has become familiar for Collingwood but a novelty for Geelong, would not have a bearing on the result.
"Sometimes it does pick you up a little bit, but that doesn't last for long. I mean, you can't dismiss it, but I've never seen the crowd kick a goal."
