THREE days out from the Easter Monday match-up with Hawthorn, Geelong is still working through what its final team will look like.
The Cats named a squad of 26 for the traditional clash on Thursday night, with Joel Selwood and Tom Stewart set to return after missing last week’s win over the Brisbane Lions.
Esava Ratugolea and Shaun Higgins are also in the mix to take on the Hawks.
“We’ve still got a few balls in the air, which is always why it’s hard to forecast exactly what the make-up of your team’s going to be,” coach Chris Scott said.
“We’ve just had so many occasions – and last week was a good example of it – where Tom Stewart’s ready to go until he wakes up with gastro the morning of the game.
“We need to have all those contingencies in place, and the fact our VFL team played on Thursday and we played Easter Monday makes it a little bit harder.
“(But), if the price we’ve got to pay is a little bit of a challenge in terms of our planning to get the opportunity to play Easter Monday, then we’ll take the opportunity.”
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Scott said Stewart has suffered no lingering effects of the gastro that kept him sidelined.
“The feedback I got from the doctors … it was just really bad timing,” he said.
“12 hours earlier or 12 hours later, and he would have been fine.
“And that’s the feedback I’ve got – that’s recovered quickly and he’s recovered fine.”
Scott also revealed Selwood being managed was more than just a rest.
“Joel had been a little bit crook as well,” he said.
“It wasn’t an acute gastro thing like Tom, and it certainly wasn’t any COVID issue.
“But a combination of factors convinced us it was a good decision, and it would have been a good decision if we lost a game … in our opinion.”
Ratugolea was a late withdrawal from the win over the Lions after failing to recover from an ankle issue that forced him from the field in the third quarter of the previous week’s win over Collingwood.
However, Scott said he’s no certainty to play even if he’s right to go.
“For us, it’s not necessarily a binary decision of, “he’s right, so he plays. Or he’s not so he doesn’t”.
“There’s a few more things, given we’re only at Round 5 that we need to consider with a younger, developing player.
“We want him in such physical shape that he can perform really well as opposed to just get through.”
A decision will need to be made on Higgins after he suffered a delayed concussion following an incident against the Magpies.
“The guys coming through the concussion protocols are all completely different, and it’s too far out from the game for us to make an assessment as to whether he’s ready,” Scott said.
“And our bias with these things is that they need to be 100 per cent ready, 99’s not good enough.”
Click below for Chris Scott’s media conference.
