CAT IN FOR LONG HAUL
Geelong keeping the faith in Clark
GEELONG says Jordan Clark’s long-term future is at the Cats as he prepares for his likely recall against St Kilda on Friday night.
Clark was brilliant in the VFL on Thursday night with 29 possessions and 165 ranking points after being dropped for a second time this year and spending two games as the medi-sub.
Geelong is assessing a lower leg injury to midfielder Sam Simpson, while Luke Dahlhaus battled a back/ribs injury that saw him battling to breathe properly in the win over Richmond.
The Cats did not diagnose Simpson’s injury but he was just only returning from a quad injury, with Chris Scott referencing his injury history on Friday night.
Clark was mentioned in dispatches during the Jeremy Cameron trade after being starved of opportunities last year, but was adamant he wanted to remain at the club.
Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd said despite the lack of senior opportunities Clark knew exactly where he stood after 18 games in his debut season.
“He has a great attitude and he knows it’s competitive for spots. He works very closely with our senior players, he has a great relationship with Joel Selwood and we have seen him mature a lot over the last few years, so we see him here for a long period.
“He is a young man and wants to play, but I was at Collingwood when Dane Swan was regularly playing reserves, as was Heath Shaw, so it’s only a matter of players refining their game.
“He is really open to learning and is a great character so he continues to develop.”
Clark told the Geelong Addy in March that he considered his options at the end of last season but after a chat with skipper Joel Selwood it became “pretty clear that I wasn’t going anywhere”.
He said then that missing finals in his first two seasons at the club had driven him to cement a spot in Geelong’s best 22.
Lloyd said the club was still working on recruiting boss Stephen Wells’ future as he considers whether to step back to allow the likes of Andrew Mackie to step up in the list management department.
Collingwood will need a list manager with Ned Guy having moved on but Wells (pictured) has expressed no interest so far in that role.
“It’s business as usual. He is continuing to work as our list manager and head of recruiting,” Lloyd said.
“We will work with him as to what the future looks like but he certainly hasn’t expressed any interest in going elsewhere. We are happy to work with Stephen on whether he might like to do the same thing he is doing or whether he upskills others in the organisation and we are having an open discussion about it.”