GEELONG coach Mark Thompson last night insisted his players' 61-point dismantling of the Western Bulldogs would not encourage them to enter a potential finals clash with any sort of superiority complex, while his counterpart Rodney Eade did not believe the margin reflected the gap between the teams.

Eade, who felt some of his side's "so-called better players" were not on song, said the Bulldogs had several things to sharpen up in the last six weeks of the season, had dropped off a little in the past month and had lost some focus as Geelong blew them away with an eight-goal final term.

After a tight first half, with scores level at half-time, the top-placed Cats kicked four goals to one in the third term to take a 15-point lead into the final quarter, before running away with the game.

Geelong won without key players Gary Ablett and Cameron Ling, both of whom are a chance to return against Hawthorn next week in another long-awaited clash.

"I think Geelong's pressure is as good as any team in the competition and I think a lot of that's inferred pressure, sometimes there's not a player there," said Eade after the loss, the Bulldogs' second this season. Brad Johnson tweaked an ankle early and Robert Murphy finished on the bench with bad cramp, but both were expected to be fine for next week.

"We spoke about it before the game, how we needed to play, and 30-odd years ago it was the same. It's human nature. When you're down by that much or things aren't going well, you tend to lose focus a bit and you don't follow instructions.

"You tend to play for survival, as in no mistakes, you don't want to make mistakes. And that's part of our game, to take risks, but once that scoreboard pressure built we tended to clam up a bit.

"I think we all should be disappointed, because the last 10 or 15 minutes were a bit embarrassing, but I think when you get down by that far, sometimes they can become a bit inward and the score blows out more than it should.

"We knew where we're at and there's still a fair bit of work to do, but the good thing is there's still seven weeks left. There's a lot of premiership teams through the years that have got a belting during the season. I think Geelong lost earlier in the year by a fair bit ( 86 points to Collingwood in round nine). I think teams can bounce back."

Thompson, who was "staggered" to read yesterday that Brownlow betting had been suspended due to bookmakers' suspicions that Ablett would miss several weeks with his ankle injury, said the midfielder would be back in the side either against the Hawks or in round 18.

Ling, who had surgery on his broken cheekbone last week, was also a chance to return next week, according to football manager Neil Balme.

The Cats have also opted to rest young forward Tom Hawkins for a few weeks, after he developed a "hot spot" in a foot that could develop into a stress fracture if not carefully managed.

"I think (Ablett) is a chance to play next week and if it's not next week, it'll be the week after and that's all we've been told," Thompson said. "I was staggered when I heard all the rumours and I was hoping it wasn't true. I'm glad it wasn't.

"(Hawkins) has a sore foot but when we mention the word 'navicular', it spreads panic amongst everybody and it's not panicking at all. It's about management, looking after the boy and making sure that if we happen to need Tom around the finals, then he's ready and in a condition to play."

Thompson sensed some positive momentum building towards the end of the second half yesterday, and was pleased that his side laid some "unbelievable tackles, won some unbelievable balls and kicked some amazing goals" to finish off the match.

But he said the Cats would never consider themselves clear favourites should they encounter the Bulldogs again. "Not really. We might have a completely different game the next time we play them," he said.

"There's no one out the back doing handstands, I can tell you, it's very much focused on Hawthorn and our next game and if we happen to meet the Bulldogs again, which is probably likely, we'll use some parts of this game but we won't get total confidence and go in thinking we can't lose because that would be just stupid."