THE sign behind the goals at Skilled Stadium said "100 per cent happy". Yesterday, in Geelong at least, there was truth in advertising.

Thousands packed into the stadium for the Cats' final training session before the premiership favourites leave for Melbourne this morning.

There were babies in Cats clobber, old ladies in Cats clobber, teenagers in tight black jeans, shaggy haircuts and Cats clobber. There was a man playing a piano accordion, in Cats clobber of course.

The sun shone. It was billed as a training session but in reality this was a showcase — a leisurely run-through for the army of fans who filled more than half the ground to farewell their boys. The team trained in three separate groups, a way of extending what should rightly have taken half an hour into a morning-long festival.

Ruckmen Steven King and Mark Blake sailed through some light drills. Until the previous night they had been rivals for a spot on Saturday. Yesterday King beamed, while Blake put on a brave face. But as the unlucky man left the field, the crowd gave him one of the biggest cheers of the day. He looked down, bit his lip and kept running.

As a group of forwards, including Cameron Mooney, practised running shots at goal, an ecstatic crowd greeted each pretend six-pointer with a mighty cheer. It was all extremely gentle; the mantra running through every mind was surely "Don't get hurt", each witch's hat lurking as a potential hazard.

The scent of cut grass mixed with sizzling sausages. The theme song was on high rotation over the PA. All week the city had been surprisingly subdued, placards and streamers only hinting at an excitement few dared to embrace. Yesterday, they went with it. When the ground announcer yelled "Go Cats!", there was a huge roar.

Old friends Anne Thompson and Beverley Hope were beaming in the sunshine, the two 67-year-olds growing in confidence that the 44-year premiership drought would soon be broken. "This is great," Ms Thompson said. "The whole town feels alive today. Everyone is smiling and talking to one another." She was one of the few present who remembers what it is like to see a Geelong flag — and thought sometimes that she might never see another.

Her friend Beverley was also bullish. She grew up two blocks from Kardinia Park and still lives nearby. "We're going to win by four goals," she said. "I've been nervous, but now I'm sure of it."

There were big cheers for captain Tom Harley and injured defender Matthew Egan — who failed in a bid to come back from a broken foot for Saturday's game. Bigger cheers still for pin-up boys Jimmy Bartel and Gary Ablett.

Charles Humphries was smiling too. The 66-year-old has been a Cats man since he arrived as a teenager from Ireland in 1962. "This is definitely the year," he said. "We've got our best players fit and we will beat Port by 45 points."

He is a long-time member but missed out in the ballot for tickets to the grand final. "I'm here today because I just had to see them one last time before Saturday," he said. He has seen Geelong lose too many grand finals; each time it has brought him to tears. But not this year. "I just can't see us getting beaten. We'll annihilate them."