Cats to juggle winning formula for Prespakis return
RISING Geelong star Georgie Prespakis is set to return to the Cats’ line-up for Saturday’s West Coast clash at Ikon Park after serving a two-match suspension.
Prespakis was handed a two-game ban for a dangerous tackle on St Kilda’s Erin McKinnon, bringing to a halt her superb start to the season.
Geelong coach Dan Lowther said “there’s definitely one change” for the weekend’s clash, but who would go out is unknown.
“We’ve got some difficult decisions to make, that’s for sure, we’ve got pretty much a full list to choose from which is outstanding,” he said.
“With Georgie coming back in this week after her twoweek suspension, there’ll be clearly one coming out.
“We need to make sure that whatever change we make from here isn’t going to upset the flow of our winning formula at the moment.
“It’s really stiff for players at this point to come out because we’re winning and it’s a difficult conversation to have.”
Lowther said Rachel Kearns and Renee Garing were also “knocking my door down” to get back into the side.
Two-time best-and-fairest winner Amy McDonald was able to get off her dangerous tackle charge against Essendon’s Stephanie Cain at Tuesday night’s tribunal and is free to play against the Eagles.
Lowther said while the vision looked “damning”, McDonald attempted to avoid a dangerous tackle when Cain “put the brakes on”. He said players needed to be coached on how to break a tackle.
“We talk about the tackle method being the one that’s under the microscope, a lot of it too goes down to how we break tackles,” he said. “We need to coach how we break and fight tackles … someone’s going to get hurt or reported where it was unnecessary, where we just concede and drop our weight and drop our body. You’re putting yourself in harm’s way by doing that … I’m not saying Steph conceded at all, she’s trying to fight a tackle, but how we do that can certainly help with the safety factor.”