THE BIG SQUEEZE
Cats ruckman seeks answers on his AFL future
A BRUTALLY honest Zac Smith says he will seek clarity from coach Chris Scott as to where he sits in Geelong’s plans this year.
The out-of-form ruckman said consistency issues within games were to blame for his demotion to the VFL, but he remains confident he can regain the Cats’ number one ruck spot.
Smith said he had not had any indication from Scott as to whether there was room in the AFL side for both he and incumbent Rhys Stanley.
“The dialogue (with Scott) is just constantly ongoing,” Smith said.
“I’ll probably seek out a little bit more this week on where that’s at, because I actually haven’t asked the question if they’ve thought about playing Rhys and I (together).
“They just haven’t tried it (this year), even in the JLT they didn’t try it. They haven’t directly said that to me, so that’s the message I’m feeling, so it’s kind of half obvious.
“I’m sure they’ve spoken about it, they go through all different scenarios week in week out.
“Maybe I’m just not playing well enough at the moment.”
Stanley and Smith played together throughout last season but the Cats have so far opted to use only one — or neither against West Coast in Round 3 — with Esava Ratugolea or Mark Blicavs as a back up.
Smith said he knew it would be up to him to fight for his spot back in the team in the coming weeks.
“That’s the challenge of AFL footy I suppose. There are so many challenges week in week out and here’s another one that’s popped up,” he said.
“There’s always going to be a number one ruckman at any club and I know I’m good enough to do that.
“It’s just building that consistency ... that’s not only week to week but quarter to quarter. I’ve just lacked that over the last few weeks, even in the JLT I lacked that bit of consistency of effort I suppose. It just comes down to that.
“It looks like they’re not going to play the both of us in the side and that’s the way it is, so we’ve just both got to fight for it.
“Sometimes I’ll just go in and out of games a little bit. They believe in me and I believe in myself that I can get to that consistent level throughout a game, and I showed that throughout the back end of last year. I just need to get back to that level, basically.”
Scott addressed the ruck situation after the St Kilda game, saying he was impressed with Stanley’s performance against his former side.
“I quite liked the way Zac played in the VFL today,” Scott said.
“But our set up there, and maybe the conditions helped a little bit, but I thought Stanley was competitive in there, did some good things getting behind the ball.
“We think Ratugolea could be a genuine ruckman in time. I thought he did his part there as well, Blicavs a little less today because he was back.
“We thought the balance was OK against a team that played two ruckmen.”