CATS’ MID STRENGTH THIRST
GEELONG is keeping an open mind ahead of the first round of tonight’s national draft, with all options on the table for its first pick, including possible live trading. The likelihood is the Cats will take a strong-bodied midfielder if early selections go as expected, but list manager Stephen Wells (pictured) said he would have no hesitations taking a key position prospect if the right player slipped through. Geelong will also be open to discussions with rival clubs about trading its first pick — No.12 — but Wells said he would not initiate those talks, with the stronger likelihood being the Cats will take a player tonight.
“That is our intention today (to select a player) but someone might approach us after the 11th pick has been called out and give us an offer we might have to seriously consider,” Wells said.
“Our intention is to go to the draft and use (our first pick). But trading can happen and you can trade a pick up to a minute before you call a name out, so we are open-minded to everything.
“Right now we haven’t got a scenario where we are likely to approach someone and say ‘We will give you our pick 12 and do something else’, but if someone approaches us we would be open to it.”
Geelong has not had a firstround selection at the national draft since 2014 when it took a punt on Nakia Cockatoo at pick No.10, and the five previous players it took in the first round — Darcy Lang, Jackson Thurlow, Billie Smedts, Daniel Menzel and Mitch Brown — are either at other clubs or no longer in the AFL system.
Wells said while the Cats had narrowed their probable pick down to a small group of players, the draft always had a way of throwing up curve balls.
“The player we will pick (at pick 12) will be very well credentialed, they will have performed really well — particularly this year — but some of the decision will be made for us by who is picked before our pick comes around,” he said.
“We have narrowed it down to a group of players who are very well credentialed and they are probably going to be able to play midfield and we are looking forward to calling that name out on the night.
“We want someone who can play a variety of roles, but midfield would be one of them.
“It could be a key position player if one of the very highly credentialed key-position players came through our way, but we are not anticipating that happening.
“There are three very highlycredentialed key position players in the first part of the draft, the way we see it, so if one of those slipped through we would definitely be looking at it.”