Thompson: Don't compare us!

Geelong coach Mark Thompson does not want this year's side compared to the one that won the premiership last season.

Last season, Geelong lost just four games during the regular season before going on to defeat Port Adelaide in the grand final by a record margin of 119 points.

But many things have changed for Geelong in the off-season, with Nathan Ablett retiring from football and All Australian duo Brad Ottens and Matthew Egan also missing in action.

And while Geelong has brought in a handful of quality new players to its line-up, Thompson said last year's premiership counts for nothing now and that the current playing group has to find motivation to play well week in and week out.

"We have to be happy with what we do and we can't look at any other week or any other year," Thompson said on Geelong's form so far in 2008.

"I don't think we should be compared to last year because the competition has improved so much. People are expecting us to win by massive amounts and it's probably not going to happen all year, so get used to it."

"Last year we were motivated to win a premiership. This year we have got to be motivated to play our best footy knowing that other teams are going to be looking at us and studying us."

After a slow start the Cats certainly did play their best footy during the third term of their 30-point victory over Richmond at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

After trailing by six points at half-time, the Cats kicked seven goals to one in a dominant third term that set-up a match winning lead against a Richmond side that came out of the blocks firing.

The Cats had 15 shots at goal from 19 forward 50 entries in that quarter and Thompson said it was an 'outstanding effort' by his side after he challenged them to lift at half-time.

"We played an incredible third quarter of football where we just blew the opposition away," Thompson said.

"We have come back and ended up winning by 30 points in the wet which is the equivalent of a 50 or 60 point win."

Despite missing Ottens through injury once again, Geelong dominated the ruck with Mark Blake and Shane Mumford teaming beautifully against Richmond's Troy Simmonds and Graham Polak.

Thompson said this duo had been improving together each week in the absence of Ottens, while Richmond coach Terry Wallace was surprised at how poorly his big men performed.

"We were very surprised we got beaten as badly in the ruck as what we did. But full credit to the Geelong rucks," Wallace said.

"We expected that to be a strength area of ours and it just didn't work out like that on the day."