GEELONG coach Mark Thompson said his team had shown the football world how desperately it wanted to beat premiership challenger Hawthorn with its gutsiest victory of the season.

The Cats won by 11 points and have now defeated their two closest rivals in as many weeks. Last night, they were without four of their best players.

Thompson claimed a second victory in revealing that veteran defender Darren Milburn, who withdrew before the game with a virus, had spent the night in hospital on a drip without anyone finding out. It was a sign the Geelong juggernaut had the whole town on its side.

"It was a secret in Geelong last night that Darren spent the night in hospital and put three litres of fluid in. Once upon a time, that secret could never be kept in Geelong. Geelong should be very proud of the town," Thompson said.

The Cats, however, will be forced place tough nut Paul Chapman on ice for one or two weeks after he tweaked his hamstring booting a long kick forward in the second quarter.

"We were toying with the idea of bringing him back on, so it's not a big one but it is there. We didn't want to risk him. It's not worth it at this time of the year," Thompson said.

The game was played in an intense atmosphere, and the crowd of 86,179 at the MCG was biggest for a home-and-away match not involving Essendon, Carlton, Collingwood or Melbourne.

Asked whether this was the gutsiest victory of the Cats' premiership defence, Thompson replied: "Yes. It was pretty tough. We didn't have everything go right for us and we played a pretty good team. We lost momentum a few times, we gained it, but our will to win was better than the opposition's.

"What they (the players) said to us, and the footy world, was that they didn't want to lose this game of footy. They went over and above the call of duty, some of them, to help this team get over the line."

Geelong is set to regain star midfielder Gary Ablett, Cameron Ling and David Wojcinski in the coming weeks, and Thompson said he would not claim a psychological advantage from the recent victories over the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn.

"I don't think it really counts for that much. When we play Hawthorn and the Bulldogs again, the teams will different," he said. "We didn't win it (last night's match) convincingly. We never crushed them. They should be pretty proud of their efforts, too, Hawthorn. They haven't lost any respect tonight."