Selwood bears bruises of Geelong’s scrappy VFL win
GEELONG will await scans on luckless veteran Scott Selwood to determine the damage of a knock the midfielder copped to his ribs in his team’s 26-point VFL win against Sandringham on Saturday.
Selwood has played 10 consecutive VFL matches and has been in sublime form in recent weeks, prompting senior coach Chris Scott to declare the former West Coast vice-captain all but certain to earn an AFL recall before the end of the home-and-away season.
The 29-year-old had racked up eight disposals in the first quarter-and-a-half and came back on fleetingly late in the second quarter after the knock, but did not reappear after halftime.
Geelong VFL coach Shane O’Bree said the club would assess the next step once Selwood has scans this week.
“He got a knock around his ribs but we are unsure what damage there is (at the moment),” O’Bree said.
“He will get scans but he just couldn’t get it running and it was affecting him. He went back on a couple of times to try to get through it but it wasn’t worth the risk in the end because he couldn’t play at 100 per cent.”
Other listed Geelong players to impress in the scrappy win included Sam Simpson, James Parsons and backman Lachie Henderson, while Nathan Kreuger was a standout in defence in the second half after switching from attack.
O’Bree said he was impressed by his team’s ability to persist in tough conditions.
“Hendo (Henderson), Simmo (Simpson), Parso (Parsons), and obviously Charlie (Constable) and Narks (Quinton Narkle) got a bit of the ball around the contest,” he said.
“I thought Fogs in the second half, when we needed him in the midfield more than as a forward, really got us going, especially in that last quarter.
“And Oscar Brownless and (Jacob) Kennerley are two young blokes who, as the year has gone on, have got better every week.
“They are both playing different roles than they normally played at junior level, so one is playing as a high forward, the other is playing as a high back and they are doing really well.
“(Zac Smith) Smithy (as well), I thought he really controlled the ruck. His follow-up work was impressive and obviously in the last quarter when we needed him to really stand up, he did.
“That is what we expect of Smithy, and he wants to do that. It’s just his consistency with everything and I thought he was really consistent.”