Another round of football and another Geelong victory, but coach Mark Thompson said Saturday night's win over Richmond was extra special.

It was Matthew Scarlett's 200th game against the Tigers and Thompson said he used that milestone as extra motivation to his charges before the match.

"I did mention it (the milestone)," Thompson said.

"I told the team that they probably should put every effort into winning this game for this man because he has been such an important person for the club."

"He's an on-field role model and he's just been amazing; a little bit of who we are is because of people like him."

It was a pretty stock-standard game for Scarlett against the Tigers.

He collected 15 possessions, gave his side plenty of run out of the back line and shut down many of Richmond's forward forays.

Thompson said Scarlett was still underrated by many around the league, but everyone at the Cats knows just how important the three-time All Australian full-back is.

"I'm biased because I've coached him and seen him play and seen him develop and I've seen him take full-back into a new era," Thompson said.

"I've never seen a defender play such an attacking role and have attacking influences on a game of footy while he's playing on the best player from the opposition who kicks the most goals. I said openly this week that I think he's changed the face of back line play; he's an outstanding player."

The Cats now find themselves three games clear on top of the ladder and seem certain to finish the year with the minor premiership.

Thompson was pleased with the Cats' 63-point victory over Richmond on Saturday night, particularly with the fact that his side had 12 different goalkickers.

"It was a slow start, but we did a fair bit right and it was a really competitive game and a good result. 63 points is a pretty good margin to win that game by in the end," Thompson said.

"We just never got carried away with ourselves at any stage. We had a reasonable lead for most of the night, apart from the first quarter, and you'd have to say that we just kept chipping away at it."

Running defender David Wojcinski and forward Paul Chapman missed the clash against the Tigers and are likely to be out of action for another week, but star onballer Gary Ablett is set to return for the Cats Round 19 clash against Melbourne on Friday night.

Thompson said Ablett was keen to play against the Tigers, but the club erred on the side of caution with the 24-year-old.

"We were pretty open this week, he did train on Wednesday night and he was fine doing a lot of things," Thompson said.

"He was a little bit sore changing direction so we decided together that he wouldn't play."

"This morning (Saturday) he did everything at training so we'd expect that he'd play next week."