Geelong coach Mark Thompson says there is no panic despite his once all-conquering club hitting a rough patch as the AFL finals approach.

The Cats' 14.13 (97) to 8.14 (62) loss to Carlton at the MCG on Friday night was their third defeat in six rounds, a sequence which has come after losing just three of their previous 57 matches.

More worryingly, while the six-point defeat to unbeaten St Kilda in round 14 and the following round's loss to Brisbane, when the Cats fielded a side badly depleted by injury, were excusable, Thompson admitted the performance against the Cats was very disappointing.

He said his players failed to show Geelong hallmarks of sharing the ball around and hitting the Blues with hard physical pressure.

"We kept kicking to a contest, which is just so unlike us and I think we had three tackles in a quarter maybe in the third quarter, it wasn't one of those Geelong-like games," Thompson said.

"It didn't look like a Geelong game that we've become accustomed to and that's probably the most disappointing."

But after narrow comeback wins over Hawthorn and Adelaide in the previous two rounds, Thompson said he would wait to see how his team bounced back against Sydney at ANZ Stadium next Saturday night before worrying too much.

"It doesn't necessarily mean the same form will turn up next week," he said.

"We've had a couple of pretty hard weeks where we've been down at three-quarter time in big games and got up over the line and today was the third week in a row and we just couldn't deliver it.

"Let's walk in Monday, let's just go back to business, we're not going to panic, we're not going to do anything extraordinary, we're just going to go about our business and try to play some great footy."

Blues coach Brett Ratten said his young side should not get carried away despite being on the verge of qualifying for the club's first finals series since 2001 and beating an AFL powerhouse.

While Carlton have also claimed the scalps of top four contenders Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Brisbane this season and pushed the Saints to within nine points, he said it did not necessarily mean much come finals.

"They're a great team, Geelong, and we probably take a bit of credit out of it for our boys because I think it's good for their confidence," he said.

"But you wait until September comes and Geelong will just crank it up another cog and away they go and they'll be super-competitive and super-hard to beat and they'll be probably right there close to the last day in September."

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