Cats man up for Port clash

ERIN PEARSON
A FULL-strength Geelong side will take on at home an injury plagued Port Adelaide after narrowly clinching a tough victory against Fremantle interstate last weekend.
Cat’s coach Chris Scott said Joel Selwood, Paul Chapman and captain Cameron Ling would be available alongside champion full back Matthew Scarlett who sidelined last week for a round-one elbow on St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt.
“We’re assuming Selwood will be back and there are also about three or four guys who could come back also,” Scott said.
“We’ll have some difficult decisions to make but that’s a good position to be in.”
Ling, Joel Corey and Corey Enright were all lucky to be cleared by the AFL’s match review panel of rough conduct after an aggressive match against Fremantle last weekend.
Scott said the side would now look to overcome its age demons.
“People are saying our list doesn’t look as good as previous years…we understand why people have question marks over Geelong,” he said.
“The challenge we have in front of us hasn’t lessened, our challenge is to rise above it.”
Scott vowed the Cats would continue to filter in young blood when possible.
“All our young players have been impressive,” he said.
“We won’t play them though if we don’t believe they’ll have an impact. All our young players are acutely aware off the opportunities for them.”
Injured Port Adelaide skipper Dominic Cassisi will miss the clash after fracturing his tibia during the Power’s loss to West Coast on Saturday.
Port utility Nick Salter will also miss the game with a broken foot but Cassisi said goal-kicker Daniel Motlop was ready to return.
Port Adelaide would need a lot of contributors to topple the Cats, Cassisi said.
“We’ve got a really young leadership group and it’s a great opportunity for them to be able to step up and really put their footprint on the place.
“We’ve had two losses and we haven’t got off to the start we wanted but guys that play well in the next few weeks will be the guys that have a bit of substance about them and will take the club forward.”