RHYS ON THE RISE, SAY CATS SPORT

Free of setbacks, Cats buoyant about Stanley

ONE of Geelong’s most polarising players looks set to benefit from a clean bill of health and an uninterrupted pre-season this year.

Rhys Stanley, who has endured some frustrating summers in recent years, has been turning heads at training with his work on the track and is focused on playing a major role in Geelong’s push for a 2018 premiership.

Assistant coach Nigel Lappin said the 27-year-old would again be used in a variety of positions, but stressed the length of time he had been able to stay on the ground this preseason would prove to be a major advantage when he moves forward once the season gets under way.

“Rhys will be given his chance in a number of positions and he has trained really well, he is running well and he hasn’t missed too many sessions at all this pre-season, which is really important for his development as a forward,” Lappin said.

“In previous pre-seasons Rhys has had some injury issues and he just hasn’t had the continuity in training to really develop his top end forward craft. He’s certainly played there a lot during games but it is hard sometimes to go in under match pressure when you haven’t really had the opportunity to train (with the forward group).

“The downside for Rhys is that at times he just hasn’t had the continuity as a forward to get his opportunities and really improve in that position.”

The rapid development of Zac Smith in the second half of last year means competition to earn the No.1 ruck position will be fierce, but with Stanley spending more time with the forwards it seems likely he will — at least at the start of the season — play more of a supporting role.

But Lappin insisted no players would be pigeonholed.

“It will be a combination of roles for Rhys and he is a fantastic ruckman in his own right, but both he and Zac will be training really hard to potentially play that position,” he said. “As we did last year, we will choose the one who is in really good form at the time. At the same time, we understand that it is a really long year for those big guys and we are very fortunate to have a few ruckmen on our list.”