Geelong is yet to decide whether veteran captain Patrick Dangerfield will feature in Thursday night’s crucial clash with Collingwood.
Coach Chris Scott says the club will wait until after its main training session today (Tuesday) to make a call on Dangerfield, who battled a hip concern in last Friday’s win over Melbourne.
The 36-year-old has played 15 of a possible 19 matches in 2026, but Scott says it’s “more nuanced and hopefully more sophisticated from our perspective than just looking at the fixture and saying he’s played X number of games so therefore he should miss here”.
“We’ve always taken that approach, and we’ll continue to, but if you take a step back and look at the macro, we’ve said for a long time now, with Pat, that “It’s unlikely you’ll play every game every season”, which is the way it’s played out.
“But we do have a bit of experience with this now. We’re confident in our processes there.
“What that means for Thursday is a bit hard to predict; I wouldn’t like to speculate either way. Both options are on the table now.
“What I would say is, just to help you with the way I think about things, if we were clear that he wasn’t going to play, I’d tell you now.
“So that gives you a bit of an indication that he’s actually pulled up better than what was feared.”
Scott did admit, with star duo Max Holmes and Jeremy Cameron sidelined, that there is temptation to play Dangerfield, who will play on in 2027, based on their absence.
“The short answer’s yes. You sort of look at the magnets, and you think our team looks better with him in it,” Scott conceded.
“But, hopefully, the more realistic interpretation of these things is to not focus on what the players are capable of when you look at the magnets and focus on what the reality is right at the moment.
“So, him less than his best. I just can’t think of a game where we’re going to do that at any stage, especially with the options that we do have available.
“We’ve made significant changes to our team over the last couple of weeks, and we think that’s got us in the position where we’ve got some fresh and available guys who are going to be really good options for us.
“But my experience is that if you do allow that kind of, what I would call hope, enter into your decision-making; ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if Pat could be at his best against Collingwood, who are in really good form’, rather than, ‘What are we actually dealing with, what are the facts on the table?’
“So I’m really confident we’ll make a smart decision there. So I think, again, that’s another way of saying if he plays, you can have some confidence that he’s really ready to go.”
A decision will also be made on defender/ruck Sam De Koning, who was a late withdrawal from the victory against the Demons after suffering a bout of gastro.
Ollie Henry kicked four goals as the late replacement, after being listed as ‘managed’ at selection.
But Scott said that doesn’t necessarily mean he will play against his former club.
“The management stuff is not really a reflection of performance,” Scott said. “And things change week to week, so you can have your macro plan and then things get tweaked a little bit.
“We’re just too far away from making final decisions to give you an accurate assessment there.
“What I do admire is, we had to plan to manage him. But still, our plan was for him not to play at all, (but) we needed him to be at the game if something happened, which it did.
“So on short notice, he came in and performed well, which I think speaks to his mental preparation, physical preparation to come in and do the job.
“It’s nice to know, because I think in the modern age performers across a whole lot of sports talk about preparation being key.
“And it absolutely is. But sometimes the proverbial hits the fan, and you’ve just got to deliver at short notice.
“I admire those who can do that, so good on him.”
After four goals on limited game time in the VFL, Jack Martin will come under consideration, as will experienced defender Jake Kolodjashnij, who didn’t play at state league level after being managed from the AFL team the week before.
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