Geelong coach Chris Scott doesn’t think he’s “entitled” to know why defender Jake Kolodjashnij isn’t available for selection at either AFL or VFL level this weekend.
The premiership defender has been at the centre of the concussion waiver saga that has embroiled the club for the past week, with the Cats failing to notify the AFL of a separate letter in which the 31-year-old agreed to assume risk around head trauma after receiving an amber light from the AFL’s concussion panel.
The AFL has appointed an independent King’s Counsel to work its way through Geelong’s “please explain”, which was due to be lodged yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.
“I’m not exactly sure about that,” Scott said when asked why Kolodjashnij won’t play. “All that gets fed back to me is that he’s not available.
“Our captain’s run before the Essendon game was last Friday, and I was aware that he was unavailable at that point.
“So because the situation’s the status quo, I haven’t felt the need to get an update from him.”
Scott refused to speculate on whether Kolodjashnij would pull on a Geelong jumper again, while also rejecting suggestions his absence is a result of the scrutiny the current situation has brought.
“I’m pretty confident that’s not the case, but I’m just not informed as to the actual reason,” he said. “It just gets fed back to me that he’s unavailable, so I’m sure others know the reasons.
“Sorry, I can’t help. I’m sure that there are people that can, but it’s just not part of my remit.
“There’s a whole range of things in society that I want to know, but I just don’t think I’m entitled to them.
“There’s a part of me that would like to give an impassioned defence of certain people within our club, but I just don’t think it would help at the moment.
“There are a lot of things that I would like to say… and I think this is part of our job, even if it is to our detriment, our responsibility and especially my responsibility in this case is to respect his privacy.
“‘So I understand this question completely – I don’t push back on the question being asked, but you could ask me about a less significant issue that amounted to a private conversation with a player, and I just wouldn’t tell you.”
On field, Scott confirmed Round 21 Rising Star nominee Mitch Edwards will return from being managed last week for the clash with North Melbourne, and that Gryan Miers will be right to play.
However, a call is still to be made on veteran captain Patrick Dangerfield, who has missed the past two matches.
“The initial issue is fine; he had like a little bit of a calf issue and a little bit of like a hip joint issue, and they’ve said that that’s clear,” Scott said.
“So now it’s more a matter of us trying to optimise his performance; ‘What’s the balance between match practice and keeping fresh?’.
“But we don’t have any intention of setting up our plans to have one or two good finals.
“We want to set it up so that if we are good enough to play all the way through, he can be in as good a shape as possible.”
The clash with the Kangaroos, which the Cats need to win to remain an outside chance of stealing a top-four finish, also marks 150 matches for Zach Guthrie.
“He came to our footy club as a rookie and the growth in him as a player has been just a joy to watch,” Scott said/
“He works on his game so hard. He had some games early in his career where I think he would have been wondering whether he was going to make it.
“‘And now he’s just become a mainstay of our team, finished high up in our best-and-fairest regularly, (and) really important to us.
“150 just feels like the early stages of his career.”
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