By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
ENJOYING an unbeaten record while playing a swag of youngsters has put Geelong in a luxurious position for the second half of the season.
Apart from grabbing the points and a high ladder position, the Cats are purring as they await the return from injury of a litter of experienced campaigners.
Despite the devastating season-ending blow to Daniel Menzel, the rest of the Cats story was a happy one, coach Chris Scott admitted this week.
Learning of Menzel’s fourth knee injury in succession was the “hardest day I’ve ever had in footy,” Scott confided.
But that was countered by George Horlin-Smith’s Rising Star nomination, Josh Hunt’s strong performance after returning from glandular fever and the excitement of a VFL return this week for ruckman/forward Nathan Vardy.
Experience shows that younger players tend to tire in the second half of an arduous AFL season. Geelong’s brain’s trust knows that experienced, hardened AFL bodies will bring the team home leading into finals.
That gives the Cats the luxury of resting its kittens, offering them the opportunity to be at their best at the pointy end of the season.
Geelong will be particularly well-served in the ruck department, which has had to rely on newcomer Mark Blicavs, Josh Walker until he was injured, and Trent West.
“We’d love to have Dawson Simpson, Vardy and Hamish McIntosh available,” Scott said.
“We’re slowly getting those guys back into the system and we see those guys as a unit that work together.
“We certainly won’t be deciding on our best two and sticking with them every single week.
“It’s healthy for our group that were starting to get some of those key players back into the system.”
Scott said he was excited about Vardy’s return, even though the club had taken an “ultra-conservative” approach.
“He needs to get some football under his belt. We’re not going to rush him back at all.
“In fact, he could have played the last couple of weeks but we decided to be ultra-conservative with him and we’ll continue that through the next few of weeks in his VFL program.
“I expect that’s going to be difficult because he played well at VFL level but we will resist the temptation to get him back into the AFL system because we’d rather be safe than sorry.
“Some of the feedback we’re getting is it might be too conservative but if that’s a mistake I can live with that.”
Scott said the strong Geelong influence at the Western Bulldogs was a double-edged sword.
Cats stalwarts Matthew Scarlett, Cameron Mooney, Steven King, Brent Prismall and Ben Graham all have coaching or senior personnel positions at the club.
“The Bulldogs know our individuals extremely well. They probably see that as an advantage,” Scott said.
“It can be a little bit intimidating, too. Our players knew a bit about Gary Ablett, but it didn’t help much.”
