WILL LACK OF DEPTH COST A FLAG?
GEELONG will look to recent history as inspiration for its quest to be a major player in September after putting its finals chances at risk following its loss to Adelaide on Thursday night.
Tom Stewart believes the Cats can still muster something from this season if they find the form they displayed less than a fortnight ago against Sydney.
The defender pointed to the example set by recent premiers Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and Richmond, who all timed to perfection their run to the end of the season.
“We’ve learnt from the last few years you’ve just got to be playing good footy at the right time,” Stewart said.
“Hawthorn in 2015 was playing good footy at the right time, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs the last couple of years, it’s a pretty simple equation in this day and age.
“We’ve just got to peak at the right time and we’ve got six weeks to play well and get back to what we know, which is as simple as last week (against the Swans). It’s not too far away from when we were playing some good footy.”
Stewart conceded the Cats turned the ball over in dangerous positions too often against the Crows on Thursday, which made defending their fast ball movement even more challenging.
But the defensive unit could yet be bolstered by swingman Lachie Henderson, who looks set for an AFL recall next week against Melbourne, provided he gets through tomorrow’s VFL clash against Sandringham without incident.
It will be Henderson’s fifth match since returning from a knee injury that sidelined him for the majority of the pre-season.
Stewart said the former Carlton and Brisbane veteran would be a welcome addition to the Geelong line-up to take on the Demons.
“We’re just going with the fact that you’ve got to play a role and Hendo is a star and has been for this club since he has been here,” Stewart said.
“It will be great to have him back but we’ve just got to all pick up the slack, we can’t rely on too few to get it done, so we’ve all got to be better than we were (against Adelaide).
“They (the Demons) are a team that is probably a similar age bracket to us and they have got a lot of flair and a lot of good players so we’ve got to really respect the contest and get back to winning the ball.
“We’ll have our review ... we didn’t play very well (against Adelaide) but we’ve got to prepare for Melbourne now.”
Depending on results from other games Geelong could find itself out of the eight by the end of the round, with Hawthorn, North Melbourne and GWS all hot on the Cats’ tail.