Cats prepared to roll dice with Gardner likely to be used up forward

KEY defender Ryan Gardner could be thrown forward as a test of his versatility in today’s VFL match against Geelong.

The 20-year-old tall has been named at centre-half forward for the Cats following Wylie Buzza’s call-up to the AFL team, while Timm House’s form in defence has been rock solid.

While House and Gardner could easily swap ends during today’s battle at the Holden Centre, coach Shane O’Bree said it gave the club a good chance to see how Gardner would go as a forward.

“It’s one of those things — we’ve got a lot of talls on our list and I suppose Housey going back and other players changing their roles in the team as well, it would be good for Gardner to have an opportunity to play up forward and see what he can give us,” O’Bree said.

“I suppose with the VFL program, we’ve got that flexi- bility up our sleeve to try players in different positions.

“I suppose the success we’ve seen in the AFL team with Harry Taylor being a swingman, we can sort of start thinking about our young players that are key position and see if they can play forward or back.”

Gardner returns to the side after having last week off to attend a funeral in his home state of Tasmania, while Jack Henry, Brandan Parfitt and Alex Hickey (St Joseph’s) strengthen the 23. Henry was held over as AFL emergency last week but wasn’t required.

“He’s been building really nicely, Jack,” O’Bree said. “Last week I guess it was un- fortunate he didn’t get an AFL game, but the good thing is we got a bit of a rest into Jack and some training into him, and hopefully he continues on from where he was.”

The Cats are coming off a brilliant seven-point win over Box Hill, but face Collingwood, which boasts an imposing VFL record.