Key defender, Harry Taylor, says the Cats must stick together and stay optimistic after suffering a disappointing loss on their home turf against the Dockers on Saturday.

This year Taylor has delivered another outstanding season averaging 18 disposals per game and eight marks.

Saturday’s game Taylor was able to win nine of his 14 disposals during the heat of the contest but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to upset the Docker’s powerful forward line.

“It was very very disappointing but we’ve still got opportunities and we just need to stick together and regroup this week,” Taylor said.
Taylor says the only way to compete against a high-pressured team like Fremantle is to keep them from winning the ball and out of their goal square.

“In those games you just need to win the footy and get it forward that’s the most important thing. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that as well as we would have liked,” Taylor explained.

This week the Cats have a six-day break before they meet Port Adelaide at the MCG to battle it out for a spot in the Preliminary Final.

“We’ll have to recover pretty quickly, I think we’ve got a six day break with what we’ve been told, so it’s important that we just recover well and stick together, be positive and go out and have a real crack,” Taylor said.

Despite the Cats poor result young defender, Cameron Guthrie, had an exciting first final in the backline taking 17 disposals, eight marks and four tackles at 88% efficiency.

“I thought he was terrific. He won some crucial one-on-ones for us, took a couple of really good grabs and he always uses the ball well, so a really big step forward for him,” Taylor said.

Taylor was upset to see veteran, Corey Enright, wiped out minutes before half-time and admits he will be a huge loss to the Cats final term, however, he believes the Cats have a handful of candidates fit for the job. Enright suffered a strain to the medial ligament in his knee and will most likely miss the remainder of the finals.

“Boris (Enright) is a proven finals player and to lose him and his experience is disappointing, but like you say, we’ve got some guys in the VFL at the moment who are playing outstanding footy, so if he’s not right we’ll have some people to step up.”

Click on the video above to catch the full interview with Harry Taylor on Cats TV.