BLITZ BACK A WINNER
GEELONG will continue to trial Mark Blicavs in defence after a solid performance on one of the game’s premier forwards last week.
Tom Lynch was held to one goal against the Cats and despite the Suns skipper looking dangerous throughout the afternoon, Blicavs impressed one of the best defenders Geelong has produced.
“‘Blitz’ was fantastic last week,” assistant coach Matthew Scarlett said.
“I thought he was one of our better players. He was really strong in the air and he showed us he can easily be put down back throughout the year.
“He is so versatile, so Harry (Taylor) will play down back and (Jake) Kolodjashnij will probably take that second tall, but we’ll have Blitz as an option to go down back.
“He will spend a little bit of time on the wing and in the ruck this week, but we’ve definitely got it up our sleeve to throw him down back because he showed last week that he can be a really high quality defender.”
Just where Blicavs is best suited has been a topic of debate since he made his debut five years ago.
He has played seemingly everywhere, from the ruck to the wing, to tagging the opposition’s best midfielder and in attack.
But Scarlett said given what Blicavs did against Lynch, he might find him down back more often in 2018.
“He has played down there before and handled himself pretty well, and Lynch is probably the best key forward in the competition and that first goal I don’t think anyone would have been able to stop it,” he said. “He was involved in six or seven strong one-on-ones against Lynch and halved all of those contests. He didn’t get beat and played very well, which is encouraging for us.”
Geelong may need some assistance down back in the tall defender area against the Bombers, who have named Joe Daniher, Cale Hooker and James Stewart for Sunday’s JLT Series clash in Colac.