Wylie a man full of surprises

the senior team a pleasant surprise for Scott?

“It depends on your time frame,” the Cats coach said yesterday.

“If you were to go back to the start of the year and forecast he’d be in our team at this stage of the year with reasonable availability of those big guys, then I think you’d put that in the pleasantly surprised category.

“Young key position players generally take a bit of time. But he’s probably where we expected him to be if you take a one or two-month time frame.

“He came into the team last time we played GWS (in Round 15) and has acquitted himself really well from then on.

“It’s not something we forecast a year ago. So yeah, it’s a positive for us.”

There is no doubt Buzza is starting to grow in confidence.

He freely admits that he wasn’t much of a footballer when he first converted to footy in his late teens up in Queensland.

But he has progressed slowly, working hard, doing the extras to make sure everyone knows he belongs. It’s for that reason no one was shocked that the 198cm big man moved himself into AFL contention through preseason.

He looked a long way off senior level at times last season, but he returned to the VFL in 2017 a different player.

He had a presence. And just like we saw in Geelong’s 11point win over Collingwood last Saturday, he embraced the contest at every opportunity.

It was partially why he returned a career-best 14 possessions and five marks.

Scott isn’t asking Buzza to be like Tom Hawkins. He doesn’t need him to kick six goals a game, rag doll defenders

He just wants Buzza to provide a contest, a reliable option when his teammates boot the ball inside 50.

If he can do that then there will be a spot for him come finals.

He gets another chance tomorrow against GWS Giants to cement his spot. It’s hard not to see him run out in the first week of finals if he attacks the Giants clash like he attacks the footy. TV: RADIO: IN OUT NEW MILESTONE