Geelong has settled on one change for Saturday night’s blockbuster clash with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
The Cats will welcome back gun midfielder Bailey Smith after he was a late withdrawal from last week’s loss to St Kilda with a calf issue.
Mark O’Connor has been omitted.
O’Connor is an emergency along Mitch Duncan and uncapped forward Oli Wiltshire, who is starting to come under notice from senior coach Chris Scott.
“He’s well and truly on the radar; he’s quite exciting,” Scott said today (Thursday).
“Now, I tend to get a bit nervous about saying those things because then the expectation builds, and nothing happens for four or five weeks, and the implication is that all of a sudden he’s not going as well.
“But no, it’s okay to be enthusiastic about Ollie.
“He’s a forward, and our forward line’s pretty settled, so there’s going to be some challenges there getting him in at some point.
“But he’s doing his bit, that’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, the Lions have welcomed back premiership forwards Charlie Cameron and Kai Lohmann.
They replace Conor McKenna and Colac product Will McLachlan, who has been dropped after making his debut last week.
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GEELONG
INS: B. Smith
OUTS: M. O’Connor
FB [14] Connor O’Sullivan,[38] Jack Henry,[46] Mark Blicavs
HB [39] Zach Guthrie,[44] Tom Stewart,[34] Oisin Mullin
C [3] Bailey Smith,[9] Max Holmes,[28] Oliver Dempsey
HF [45] Brad Close,[32] Gryan Miers,[18] Tyson Stengle
FF [33] Shannon Neale,[5] Jeremy Cameron,[36] Oliver Henry
FOL [16] Sam De Koning,[30] Tom Atkins,[35] Patrick Dangerfield
IC [17] Lawson Humphries,[10] Mitch Knevitt,[13] Jhye Clark,[12] Jack Bowes,[40] Ted Clohesy
EMG [42] Mark O’Connor,[22] Mitch Duncan,[21] Oliver Wiltshire
