Jared Rivers admits that the Cats defence force feels Cam Guthrie’s absence when he is off driving through the midfield because of what a star he's become.

“Yeah, we’re pretty disappointed that we’re losing him from down back because he’s a fantastic player,” Rivers told Cats TV.

“I think we knew he was going to be a super star of the game and the way he’s performed over the last three weeks has just been fantastic for us and hopefully he can keep that going.”

After the Eagles kicked four majors in the first quarter the Cats defensive pressure tightened, which left their opponent goalless for the remainder of the game.

“It was about pressuring them at the ball, we knew that they run hard and move forward a fair bit, so it was up to us to get our hands on the ball early, move it our way and then try and lock it in our forward-50,” Rivers said.

“After the first quarter we adjusted a few things and then after that it worked really well.”

Hear more from Jared Rivers after Saturday night’s game by clicking on the video above.