Geelong coach Chris Scott has hailed Tyson Stengle’s “super” response to a week of scrutiny after the small forward helped deliver a nailbiting five-point win over Adelaide.
The Cats are also confident Sam De Koning has avoided a serious right knee injury after he was substituted out of the 13.12 (90) to 13.7 (85) win at GMHBA Stadium.
Stengle, 25, was cleared to play despite spending several hours in hospital after he collapsed in a Geelong nightclub in the early hours of last Sunday morning.
He had 20 disposals, 14 contested possessions, nine score involvements, five tackles and kicked the first goal of Saturday night’s win.
“I just thought he was super,” Scott said.
“One, it’s just great news that physically, he’s in good shape, and his health and wellbeing is solid and our medical staff were very confident of that early in the piece. So that makes you breathe a bit of a sigh of relief.
“But there’s some mental pressure that comes with it as well. And people talk about building resilience – sometimes in those moments, it would be forgivable to crumble a little bit. And he did the opposite.
“He looked like he was the one in our team looking to take the moment as much as anything.
“I thought he was super in the game, and the way he handled the whole week, I thought was a credit to him as well.”
Stengle, who recently signed a five-year contract extension, has turned his career around, including winning the 2022 premiership at Geelong, since he was sacked by Adelaide for off-field reasons in 2021.
“What I will say is he is a monumental success story, that kid, if you know anything about what he’s had to overcome,” Scott said.
“Yeah, we’ll all be critical of people, making errors here and there. But with Tyson, you’ll come away and go ‘we should be proud of him’.
“Once we bring them (players) in, we’ve got their back. That’s our responsibility. The easiest thing in the world is to take the moral high ground, turf them out.”
Geelong will be in the top four until at least Sunday after setting up a blockbuster clash with Fremantle at Optus Stadium next Saturday.
De Koning was helped off late in the third quarter after he grabbed at his right knee and hit the turf, without any contact.
But Scott allayed fears of an ACL injury, saying it was an issue De Koning had also dealt with last week – and the defender could have returned to play.
“They tell me not to be concerned – they being our medical staff,” Scott said.
“It’s more a patella issue, rather than anything deeply structural within the knee.”
Jeremy Cameron (six goals) starred while Tom Stewart (28 disposals), Patrick Dangerfield (21 disposals) and Tanner Bruhn (23 disposals) were excellent.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said Josh Rachele (three goals) had played his best game for Adelaide.
Riley Thilthorpe (three goals) and Taylor Walker (two goals) were dangerous while Crows skipper Jordan Dawson (27 disposals) and Rory Laird (29 touches) were strong.
Geelong led by eight points at both quarter-time and halftime, and were up by 22 early in the third term.
But the Crows booted the final four goals of the term, with Jake Soligo delivering a three-point lead at three-quarter time.
Late in the fourth quarter, Lawson Humphries brilliantly snapped Geelong back in front before Cameron’s sixth broke Adelaide hearts.
It left Nicks lamenting Adelaide losing clearances 53-33 and inside-50s 58-42.
“We had our opportunity to maybe not so much steal it,” he said.
“But you’re not going to win too many games with some of the stats lines that came out from this one, unfortunately.”
Adelaide hosts the Western Bulldogs next Sunday.
