Assistant coach Henry Playfair shares some knowledge for this week's Coaches Column, thanks to Cellarbrations, ahead of our clash against Geelong at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

After such a strong start to the game, from the outer the intensity and ‘fizz’ seemed to have gone out of the game. What did you boys in the box put that down to?

We still felt we were in control of the game, I think it was just in the last quarter we didn’t make the most of our chances.

We hit the post a couple of times and missed a couple of gettable shots which, if we nail, we kick 4.4 instead of 1.7 and we win by 50-60 points.

So, I think we still created enough chances we just didn’t finish off our hard work.

‘Horse’ (John Longmire) was quoted at this week’s press conference with saying how important the four points were given the competiveness and evenness of the competition. Is that how you saw it?

It’s so important to bank points early on in the season, especially away from home and going by the upset results from the weekend.

Melbourne has been going along pretty well, so even if we didn’t finish the game off well it was still crucial we returned home with four points.

Momentum is massive not only in games but throughout the season. We lost a bit losing back-to-back matches, even though they were small margins, but we wrestled some back with a win last week.

Given you oversee the forward line, were you pleased with Kurt Tippett’s effort last weekend? And are you pleased with his start to the season?

I think Tippo’s season is really building momentum in itself. I think he’s had a few chances in the first five rounds and hasn’t taken the game apart, which we know he’s capable of.

He’s had a really good month of training and he started the game really well last week, so we’re getting a really good sense that his season is building well.

We all want Lance Franklin kicking goals but, as we saw last weekend, sometimes it doesn’t happen for him. Saying that Buddy finished the game with 22 disposals so were you pleased with his work rate and efforts despite not impacting the scoreboard?

His work rate and effort has been pretty consistent all season. We all like it when Buddy kicks a bag but you can’t always control when goals come and you can’t always kick them.

We always like to spread the load as well so a positive thing is when he’s not hitting the scoreboard necessarily, Tippo chips in and kicks four and Buddy still plays his role to a large extent.

Looking ahead to Saturday night, are we braced for what the Cats will bring at ANZ Stadium?

They’ve had a bit of a slow start to the season but they were almost back to their best last week. They have good players playing well, run through the midfield, their defenders are controlling the play and they possess dangerous forward so they’re a good team.

They’ve started games well this year as well so it’s important we jump out of the blocks.

You and the forward line have a big job ahead of you. How are you going to combat the Cats’ solid defensive half?

They’re a really good back six. They’re well drilled,  they set up well behind the footy and they read the play as good as anyone. Harry Taylor, Corey Enright, Tom Lonergan, Jared Rivers - they’re hard to quell and expose them.

We think we have the forward structures to combat them and we’ll back our forwards to carry it out.