FULL TEAM AHEAD
Cats skipper set for long-awaited comeback
GEELONG captain Melissa Hickey just needs to get through training today to make her return from a serious knee injury in the Cats’ AFLW clash with Adelaide on Sunday.
The 33-year-old, who hasn’t played since rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament in March last year, was last night named on the halfback flank in Geelong’s squad for Sunday’s match.
She was one of three additions to the Cats’ side, with Rocky Cranston and Maighan Fogas brought into the 23strong squad.
Coach Paul Hood said Hickey had done everything asked of her in order to make her long-awaited return.
“She will have to get through training (tonight), but she has the same chance as everyone else now. Mel has done a fantastic job in her rehab so far, she has ticked off everything we require,” Hood said.
“Another strong training session from her and we will see her out there in the hoops on the weekend.
“Her experience will be inWIN INTERCHANGE NORWOOD OVAL, SUNDAY, 2.35PM D.Cox 31 A.Foley 3 C.Scheer 4 S.Allan 39 J.Foley 24 E.Phillips 13 A.Considine 16 CROWS — IN OUT CATS — IN OUT valuable no doubt. Her physical strength as well will help our team, we can use a bit of size around the ball.”
Aasta O’Connor (knee soreness) will miss the match. M.Rajcic 32 A.Hatchard 33 E.Marinoff 10 C.Randall 26 D.Varnhagen 9 S.Thompson 14 E.Jones 2 R.Forth 27 GEELONGI WIN C.Cramey 22 INTERCHANGE However, Hood was confident it was not a long-term injury.
Erin Hoare will be forced to shoulder a lot of the ruck work against Adelaide in the absence of O’Connor, but Hood was confident she would thrive with the responsibility.
“She has shown she is more than capable of that. She had 31 hit-outs last week,” Hood said.
“It was an outstanding performance and we are looking forward to our midfielders getting to play more and more with Erin and getting to take advantage of that.”
The Cats and Crows enter Sunday’s clash at Norwood with identical records after two rounds.
A victory for Geelong would put the Cats in a strong position heading into the second half of the season, and if results go their way could open up an eight-point buffer inside the top two.
But Hood said he was not looking too far ahead.
“I don’t think anyone from conference B has beaten anyone from conference A yet, so if we can do that, that makes it a really valuable four points that we can get that the others have missed out on,” he said.
“We haven’t really looked at the ladder, it’s Round 2. It’s not really part of our focus at the moment.
“Our focus is just trying to be as competitive as we can every week and win the games that we are in.”