Midfield muscle tussle
GEELONG has no shortage of players capable of making the jump to add midfield muscle and experience to the Cats’ AFL finals campaign.
That is the view of VFL coach Shane O’Bree, who declared Charlie Constable, Sam Simpson, Scott Selwood, Sam Menegola and defender Lachie Henderson among a group of players ready to go if summoned for Friday night’s showdown against Collingwood.
Geelong’s fringe players will now need to mount their case for selection at training after the Cats’ VFL side was knocked out of the finals on Saturday.
Constable produced another prolific match through the midfield in Saturday’s VFL elimination final loss to Port Melbourne, recording a teamhigh 35 possessions.
It would be Constable’s first AFL match since Round 9 if the Cats were to reward him for his outstanding finish to the VFL season.
Selwood had 20 possessions and Menegola 27 with nine tackles, while O’Bree was particularly impressed with Simpson, who found the footy 25 times and laid 13 tackles.
“All those boys, they’ve been in good form at VFL level,” O’Bree said.
“Yesterday they weren’t bad, they weren’t brilliant either. It still puts them in calculations for an AFL game.
“We’ve just got to work hard now at every training session and if they don’t play next week, they’ve got to train like they’re playing a game of AFL footy if an opportunity arises.
“I was really pleased for Sam and Charlie Constable. Our second and third-year players who played last year (in the VFL finals) learnt a lot from that and they were better players for it yesterday.”
Jordan Clark appears highly unlikely to feature against the Magpies after failing to get through his comeback match from an elbow injury.
Clark was restricted after a marking contest in the first quarter, to the point where he had limited movement in his arm when he ran.
After being moved to full forward, he was forced to watch the final quarter from the bench after the injury failed to settle.
“It would make it hard,” O’Bree said about Clark’s prospects of taking on Collingwood.
The Cats will provide a further update today, but Saturday was a double blow for Clark, given he missed out on match practice while aggravating the injury.
Geelong is facing a selection squeeze for Friday night, with Tom Atkins and Jake Kolodjashnij at the front of the queue to return to face the Pies.
That means Selwood and Constable would need something significant to make the starting 22.
“Every VFL game Scott’s played with us was really good,” O’Bree said. “His leadership obviously stands out. His attitude is all class, the way he approached it. He would love to be playing AFL. He’s been super consistent and played inside and outside mid.
“He’s the same as Charlie. If a spot opened up, you’d have no problems throwing either of them into a final and know they’d do their best and play to their strengths.”
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