Geelong coach Chris Scott defends four consecutive late outs as Tom Stewart, Connor Macdonald in for Easter Monday
Geelong has had four consecutive late changes, and coach Chris Scott says they were all justified. Plus, see the full teams for Easter Monday.
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Geelong coach Chris Scott has defended the Cats’ late outs over the past month, saying that there was no malice in any of them and that “he doesn’t care” for the discussion surrounding their changes.
The Cats have had four consecutive changes an hour before the bounce in their last three matches, with Bailey Smith (calf, round two), Tom Stewart (knee, round three), Mark Blicavs (illness, round four) and Stewart again (illness, round five) replaced after being initially named in their selected 23.
Geelong should break its late-inclusion streak with Stewart declared a certain starter by Scott, as Ted Clohesy – who replaced Stewart for their win over Adelaide last week – makes way.
Clohesy had been named as an inclusion for Geelong’s VFL side on Saturday night ahead of the Cats’ contest with Box Hill on Sunday afternoon, but he will instead be a part of their Easter Monday squad as an emergency.
Reliable defender Jake Kolodjashnij was also picked in that team for what would have been his first game back from a groin issue, but he was late out.
Axed small forward Jack Ginnivan featured for Box Hill in that clash and made a strong case to be recalled to the senior side with 23 disposals and four goals.
Connor Macdonald and Jack Scrimshaw will return from injury and suspension respectively, with forward Finn Maginness also dropped.
Asked if Scott would prefer naming his AFL final team the night before game day, he said: “Well, it’s more logical. I did some media last Monday (on Footy Classified), and it is true to say, I just don’t care about the discussion around it.
“But if you do want a little bit more explanation, I’m happy to provide it.” So say, for example, the Melbourne game.
“An hour before the game, we had a player (Jack Henry) that was touch and go with a foot issue. How do you want us to mitigate that?
“When we name a team, should we just not change it? Two weeks in a row, we had guys wake up with gastro. What’s the fix for that? Should we not make a late change?
“So if you can find a situation where you think we’ve just made a frivolous late change for the sake of it, bring it up, and I’ll explain it to you.”
Scott said Kolodjashnij will be back in the AFL side when he’s at his best.
The Cats coach considers the looming return of Jack Henry (2-4 weeks) and Kolodjashnij as a good problem to have after the emergence of Connor O’Sullivan and improved form of Sam De Koning after he was moved into defence by necessity.
“I think it’d be less about (Kolodjashnij fighting for a spot), and more us making sure that he’s ready to play his best. So when he’s ready to play his best, he’s in our team,” Scott said.
“So that’s the easy part. The harder part is bigger, referred to with Connor coming in – Connor is not going out of our team anytime soon.
“Obviously we already have thought about how that might play out, but we’re looking forward to the day – which we think is coming – where Jack Henry and Kolodjashnij are available and we need to sort of think through how we’ve kind of set up our team.
“Sometimes you can look at a back line and say, ‘Well, they’re tall’, but it doesn’t matter if you’re tall and agile. And we think we sort of do have a similar group of players that could play a similar sort of way.”
Meanwhile, Scott said that forgotten veteran Cam Guthrie may not be available until the second half of the season as he works his way back from his troublesome Achilles, which he underwent minor on in February.
Guthrie played in Geelong’s VFL semi-final last season but has not featured at senior level since round 10 last season.
“Cam, he’s going to be a little bit slow, but looks to be making good progress,” Scott said.
“This is probably sounding a bit conservative, but at least I’ve got my head around sort of thinking what the second half of the season would look like with him.
“And that’s less about his injury, and more about just making sure that he can come in and have an impact.
“The only mistake we can make from here is rushing back.
Scott said there is no timeline on Jack Martin’s return and reiterated that the Cats will focus on building his body for a sustained block of games.
“We are sort of holding him back as well. So they sound similar, they have different sort of situations, but I haven’t really got a timeline on Jack, but we are seeing him make some progress,” Scott said.
“And I think it’s worth saying, this is not guaranteed by any stretch, but we brought him in with a view that it might take some time, and it wasn’t a one-year thing. Like, if we need to invest a bit of time so that his ‘26 season is really strong, we think that’s a worthwhile investment from our perspective.”
Originally published as Geelong coach Chris Scott defends four consecutive late outs as Tom Stewart, Connor Macdonald in for Easter Monday
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