Geelong coach Chris Scott will weigh up which inclusions to make for Saturday’s crucial clash with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval this afternoon.
Vice-captain Tom Stewart (knee), fellow defenders Jack Henry (hamstring) and Lawson Humphries (concussion protocol), and veteran ruck Rhys Stanley (hamstring) all appeared to move freely at training this morning.
“This is probably one of the rare times that you’ve been able to see our second last session of the week before selection; it’s not our sort of normal process,” Scott said.
“You would have seen Stewart out there and Stanley out there, Jack Henry, Lawson Humphries.
“So we’re all sort of thinking through exactly how we go about that selection mix because those guys have all performed well during the week.
“But it’s not as simple as, you know, ‘Are they available? And if so, they play.’
“You’ve got to manage the integration of those guys,, and they’re all unique cases in themselves.
“That’s a long-winded way of saying we’ve got a little bit to work through, but (we are) pretty optimistic on all of them.”
Also to be factored into selection decisions is the five-day turnaround into next Thursday’s match-up with the Western Bulldogs.
“We’re thinking about it, but we’re not beholden to it,” Scott said. “We don’t think it’s such an issue that you know requires huge intervention.
“But we’ve just got to be aware of it, and, in many ways, for us, it depends on what we get, so we don’t think that it’s a situation where weeks out we were going to be really proactive in our management plan.
“It’s more a matter of seeing how we come off this game and working out the condition of guys.
“But again, the short breaks have tended not to worry us too much; we’ve got enough confidence in our program that we’ll be in good enough shape to play.”
In further good news for the Cats, veteran Cam Guthrie, young ruck Toby Conway, and Carlton recruit Jack Martin were all actively involved in training.
Scott revealed Guthrie and Martin, along with midfielder Mitch Knevitt, are in line to play in next Friday’s VFL clash against Footscray at Whitten Oval.
“Cam Guthrie and Jack Martin have been training really well and will play a half, probably… maybe at least a half in the VFL next week,” Scott said.
“Mitch Knevitt will likely play in that game as well.
“So, in addition to the four that we’re talking about as possibilities for this week, we think we’ve got another three that could come quite quickly as well.
“And when that gets up towards a third of your team, that’s significant.”
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