GEELONG may have an answer to the searing frontal pressure it expects to face in this year's finals. The Cats over the past two months have incorporated elements of a rugby league-style training program designed to perfect their ball handling under fierce physical pressure.
The results have increased confidence among the Geelong camp that it has a weapon to counter the blast-furnace tackle intensity St Kilda applies in its forward half.
The Cats' comeback, in part, is a type of on-the-move handball like a flick-pass in rugby league.
What Geelong has refined is the ability to offload the ball by hand either just before or as a player is tackled.
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The team, which has handballed more than any other over the past three seasons, has begun taking the skill to a new level to overcome the challenge of 2009.
The Cats will face a stringent test of the tactic in Saturday's Qualifying Final against the Bulldogs, who, like Collingwood and Adelaide, have copied St Kilda's frenzied defence.
What is required to pull off the technique is the composure, strength and awareness to brace for the contact, release the handpass to a teammate, and either take the hit or break free of the tackle - all in a split-second.
The aim, as in rugby, is to draw the opposition player into the tackle to create space and gaps in traffic for teammates.
What is crucial is the ability to turn in the direction of the handpass to protect the ball in the moment before impact.
The tactic is designed to avoid being locked down, especially in defence, where St Kilda's small forwards excel at forcing the opposition into turnovers with record tackle counts.
The edge the Cats have in the tackle training is rehabilitation, and strength manager Dean Robinson, a former Manly rugby league player, is adept at the craft.
The Herald Sun understands the Cats have concentrated heavily on contested ball work at training in recent months in preparation for the expected increase in September intensity.
Finding ways to score against the best defensive team in the league is looming as the key to this year's premiership race.
Seems the pussycats have spent the past months trying late release handball, also if anyone has not noticed its now official? The filth and the doggies have been trying to copy Ross's tactics, (explains why they both improved over the last quarter of the season). However seeing we have been doing it all year we will prevail and bring home the big one... we do it better than anyone..
