Club to weigh options as mid-season draft nears
GEELONG’S brains trust will sit down in the next week to plot out whether to bring in a ready-made player or a future prospect with its first ever midseason draft pick.
The Cats chose to leave a place vacant heading into the season to use in the mid-year draft, having sat out of it in previous seasons.
With Rhys Stanley battling an ankle injury, Esava Ratugolea (ankle) recovering from surgery, Jonathon Ceglar (foot) only starting to join in training and Toby Conway (hip) due to play VFL for the first time this week, the Cats
have been short on tall timber in 2022.
But all of those players are expected to be fit in the back half of the season, reducing Geelong’s need to bring in an outside ruck option.
The Cats could also look for the brightest young prospect to add to its young stocks for the future, given their ageing list profile.
Geelong currently does not have a project tall defender to back up mainstays Jack Henry and Sam De Koning, while Shannon Neale has often been the only AFL-listed tall forward option in the Geelong VFL side this year.
The Cats targeted midfielders in last year’s AFL draft, picking up Mitch Knevitt, Flynn Kroeger, James Willis and Cooper Whyte.
Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd said team needs would be a factor in the draft decision but it would be weighed against bringing in a future prospect when recruiting boss Stephen Wells and list manager Andrew Mackie meet to plan their attack.
“We will sit down as a list management team over the coming week and watch a lot of vision,” Lloyd said.
“We constantly are discussing what the team needs and what the future looks like. That is something we are always looking at and we will be guided by our list management team on which way we go. It is exciting for us to be involved in the mid-season draft.”
The mid-season draft will be held on June 1.