UNDERDONE PIES?
Scott poses Collingwood selection issue for blockbuster
COLLINGWOOD will back Jordan De Goey’s excellent first-up record after injury as Chris Scott put the Pies’ underdone stars on the agenda.
The Geelong coach hopes the Cats will dodge any post-bye issues having trained strongly in the past week.
Scott said yesterday he expected De Goey (hamstring), Darcy Moore (hamstring awareness) and Jaidyn Stephenson (suspension) to play in Friday night’s blockbuster, as well as Steele Sidebottom (ruptured testicle).
But he did throw up the poser of how many players a team could pick without regular football under their belts.
“I would be very surprised if they didn’t (play),” Scott said.
“It’s not really for me to think about, it’s more of a challenge for them to work out how many underdone guys is too many, but it tends to be a pattern when you have got highly talented players, they tend to find a spot for those guys.”
Sidebottom can play with the protection of an AFL-approved box, while Stephenson got a VFL game under his belt after his betting suspension, and Moore trained strongly on Friday night.
De Goey hasn’t played since Round 19 and will have had a 42-day break between games, but Buckley believes his star small forward will hit the ground running.
Last year he kicked 4.3 in Round 21 off a bone stress injury in his leg against Brisbane, then in Round 1 after a mid-foot sprain he kicked two goals from 10 disposals.
This year in Round 11 he kicked three goals from 16 disposals after three weeks out with a shin issue.
Geelong has lost after the mid-season bye for seven consecutive years but Scott told Channel 9 yesterday it was a period when players deloaded.
This year the Cats have trained under lights on Friday night at GMHBA Stadium and kept up a strong program through the weekend off.
“It’s very different. It is certainly different to the mid-season break,” Scott said.
“We make no apologies for prioritising a good mid-season break for our players and footy department. This one is a lot more continuous for us.
“We train a lot more consistently and don’t give our players as much time off.
“We also need to factor in the possibility we might win and if you win you get another week off so the last thing we need to be is under-done by not training enough.”
Scott said he hoped Tim Kelly would still stay for 2020, aware that players waiting until the end of the year to re-sign now doesn’t mean they will depart.
He admits he believed Stephen Coniglio was heading to Melbourne, but he joined Andrew Gaff, Josh Kelly and Dustin Martin in postponing a decision then remaining with their club.
Gary Ablett is keen to play on and Scott is adamant he should do so. “Leigh Matthews once said players don’t get to make that decision themselves,” he said
“There are degrees in that but my position is that all things being equal I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t play on.”