By Luke Voogt
Arguably the AFL’s best big-match player Dustin Martin is set to return for Geelong’s grand final rematch with reigning premiers Richmond.
Richmond will welcome back Martin from concussion for the Friday night blockbuster, but has lost captain Trent Cotchin, out with a hamstring injury.
Geelong faces a difficult task negating Martin, with tagger Mark O’Connor (hamstring) out and defender Jake Kolodjashnij (knee) unlikely to return.
“Jake’s not quite right – he’s still a couple of weeks away,” Cats coach Chris Scott told a press conference on Wednesday.
“If you look at the game closely, last time we played them [in the 2020 grand final], Kolodjashnij – and this happens with Martin a lot – you do a great job eight of 10 times.
“It’s the two out of 10 when he just slaughters you, [which is] hard for anyone to stop.”
Brandan Parfitt, who has stood out for Geelong this season with his tackling and defensive pressure in the midfield, could form part of Geelong’s plan to nullify Martin.
Scott said execution was the key to negating the pressure and surge style of the AFL’s “benchmark” team tomorrow night.
“Most times we’ve played them we’ve had a really good look,” Scott said.
“There are some parts that we look at when we got the game on our terms; the next part is how do we make sure we finish the job.”
Richmond has won six of its past seven games against Geelong, including comebacks in the 2019 prelim final and 2020 grand final.
Although the Cats scored a 67-point win over the Tigers at the MCG last June.
“They’ve just been too good for us in subsequent meetings, but not for 100 per cent of the game,” Scott said.
“The planning is actually relatively easy against Richmond and it tends to be against the best sides.
“There aren’t too many secrets there, everyone knows the way Martin plays, everyone knows the way they set up – they’ve done it so well for four years.
“How you actually go about trying to mitigate that and playing to your strengths is a bit of a question.
“But even [that] pales into insignificance compared to the actual execution on the night.
“They’re clearly still the benchmark, even with some important players out, and they’ve been able to show that their system stands up.
“We will try some different things, there is no doubt about that.
“We have taken some calibrated shots at them but haven’t quite locked on the target right at the moment but that is part of the code we are trying to crack.”
Cotchin joins premiership players Dylan Grimes, Kane Lambert and Dion Prestia on the Tigers’ injury list.
For Geelong Shaun Higgins could possibly return from finger and hamstring injuries as a replacement for small forward Gryan Miers, out with a fractured leg.
The Cats will don black armbands in honour of club legend Frank Costa, who died last Sunday.
Scott paid tribute to the former club president, and his legacy of integrity and valuing “character over talent”.
“I think it says something that Frank hasn’t been our president for over 10 years, but he’s still so central to everything that we like about the Geelong footy club and the Geelong region.”
