Geelong will receive a significant boost for its clash with Greater Western Sydney this weekend, with Patrick Dangerfield to return.
The star midfielder has missed the past two games after suffering from bleeding in his calf, but coach Chris Scott said Dangerfield would play against the Giants in Canberra on Saturday.
“He’s going well, he’ll play,” Scott said.
“We’re pursuing a policy, particularly with our more experienced players, that we get them in a position through their training that they’re ready to come in and perform at their best.
“Pat, over a period of weeks with a couple of quite serious corks, just wasn’t able to train, [and] was playing under duress.
“It made it clearer for us that the right decision for him and for the team longer term was to get that right and come back when he’s ready to play really well, which we think is this week.”
The Cats will be forced into at least one change this week, with Max Holmes having surgery during on a syndesmosis injury.
“We were really pleased with the way Max was going individually [and] in terms of his contribution to the team, it can’t be understated how important he became really quickly,” Scott said.
“He was a loss in-game on the weekend and it’ll be a loss over the next couple of months or whatever it is. Hopefully, we can all look back over a decent period of time and say this was a little bump in the road for Max.
“I’m sure he’ll come back bigger and better than ever but it doesn’t ease the short-term pain.”
Scott said Rhys Stanley was still a chance to play this weekend despite rolling his ankle in the loss to Fremantle.
“The outlook is a bit more optimistic than might have been first thought,” he said.
“Whether that gets him right to play this week or not, the fact that that’s even on the table I think is a good sign.”
If Stanley doesn’t pass a fitness test, it’s likely Esava Ratugolea could take his spot, with other ruckman Toby Conway and Jonathan Ceglar dealing with injuries of their own.
Ratugolea has missed the last month of AFL football after he was subbed out with his own ankle injury in the round three game against Collingwood.
“We think Esava is ready to play,” Scott said.
“We’ve managed him through a program that has been quite conservative but he’s certainly done enough training to think that he can come in and play at either level.”
Saturday’s game against the Giants shapes as an important one for the Cats, who were narrowly defeated by the Dockers at home last week and sit just inside the top eight.
Scott said while the Cats’ record is where the club would like, he felt the team had the quality to compete with the best teams.
The Cats have only beaten one team that currently sits above them on the ladder – Brisbane – while recording losses to Fremantle and Sydney.
“We think that we’ve got to have confidence that if we play our best footy that we can [go on a mid-season winning streak] and I think that’s still the case,” he said.
“That’s not blind faith, I think there’s enough evidence there to suggest that if we can hit our straps, and I don’t think we have to this point of the year, that we’d be hard to beat every week.
“We’re aiming to be a team that starts playing the level of footy that it doesn’t really matter who you’re playing or where it is, that if we perform we’d be good enough to win.
“If you had of asked me any stage over the last few years at this time of year I think I would have had reason for a few doubts, it was far from a sure thing, but we’ve been good enough to build a bit of momentum and play close to our best footy, so that’s what we’re aspiring to do.
“How much confidence have I got that we can do it? Still a lot. I think it’s there for us if we can put the work in and get a bit of luck.”
