On potential match-ups:

“It’s a big game - they all are these days. I think (there’s) a bit of by-play in the theatre attached to the game with Bailey being a Geelong player now, but that doesn’t come into discussions with our preparation or planning tactically.

“The way we build ourselves up for the game…the emotional part of it has to do with us and our journey, and what we can achieve in this (season).

“The key individuals in Geelong’s team obviously transcend just Bailey…the lads who play for them we need to make sure they don’t have a big impact. Bailey’s a consideration in that absolutely.

“I don’t think you’ll get anything different to what you’d normally see from us. We don’t go out of our way to antagonise or get underneath anyone’s skin unnecessarily.

“There’s obviously a combative aspect and a verbal aspect of the game that exists every week no matter who you play. That won’t be any different than it usually is.

“The empowerment piece of coaching is that your platform has to start from your own strengths. We believe if we play at our best, it should be able to manage a lot of what Geelong is capable of.”

On sharing the goal-kicking load:

“Even when Sam is in the team, our objective is to spread that scoring load. You do need to be unpredictable to be harder to play against.

“If you’re channelling all of your energy or ball movement through a handful (of players), it becomes a bit easier for the opposition to detect and defend.

“We’ve always aspired to be that team that shares that load, and is an unselfish, team-based decision-making team, who gives it to other players who are in better positions to score.

“We’ve always got work to do on that, but it’s been encouraging even since Sam went out of the side…our midfield are kicking goals, and some of our high backs are even scoring occasionally.”

On playing at GMHBA Stadium:

“(Winning at GMHBA Stadium) gets the monkey off your back a little bit. Personally as a coach, it’s one thing I hadn’t achieved.

“Once we finally won there a couple of years ago, it was a bit of a relief because it’s just that milestone we wanted to tick off.

“It just frees up your thinking…it’s not just another game, but it’s a game of footy where you’re dealing with the same things. No doubt it’s going to be a pretty big crowd…I won’t say it, but it’s taken the Bulldogs to go down there to almost pack out the stadium. I don’t know what that means for Baz…I know what the headline’s going to be now.”