Geelong’s focus on a strong finals campaign, not beating Port Adelaide at all costs, paid off after the Cats reached a preliminary final without key players Tom Stewart and Sam De Koning.
Geelong’s premiership position was significantly strengthened on Thursday night after Chris Scott opted for a conservative approach with the star duo and his side still rumbled to an 84-point win over the disappointing Power.
Stewart (hamstring/illness) and De Koning (knee) will now be given valuable extra time to prepare for the ninth preliminary final of Scott’s decorated fourteen-season tenure.
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After the match at the Adelaide Oval, Scott took the long game to task with two of his key defenders.
“If we had taken a risk with those guys and it had backfired, it wouldn’t have been impossible, but the level of difficulty would have gone up tremendously,” Scott explained.
“The plan was to be conservative with those guys and hopefully still win the game, so we feel good about that decision now.but we are not getting ahead of ourselves.
Geelong have recorded their two biggest wins of the 2024 season in back-to-back matches, fresh from their 93-point victory over West Coast that ended their home-and-away season on a high.
But as Scott saw first-hand against the likes of Carlton and Gold Coast earlier this season, it doesn’t take much to be on the wrong side of a drubbing like the one they handed to Port Adelaide on Thursday night.
“We’ve seen it all year long with the swings throughout the season… you’re kind of off night because you’re beaten badly,” Scott continued.
“We continue to see that, so it keeps our feet on the ground.
“They’re perfect examples of when you play well, you say, ‘Oh, great decision’ and if we had played badly it would have been about, ‘What would have happened if we had had Stewart and De Koning?’ ‘
“But our focus is on having a good month, not getting desperate and trying to bluff our way into a preliminary round… you can’t do that in the final.”
Scott admitted he was still struggling with the decision whether to play Stewart after suffering a hamstring problem during his last appearance before illness took hold.
“He has had a good few weeks of training and we were very optimistic that he would be right,” the coach said.
“He was training hard for a session on Monday, we thought he would be right, but… we were still weighing that up.
“Then he started getting a little flu, and by the time he woke up he was so rogue that he didn’t want to play, so it made the decision a little easier for him and us.
“But to be honest, we were leaning towards not playing him and we had also made the conservative decision against De Koning.”
The move not to play Stewart would also have thrown elements of Port Adelaide’s plan out the window, having successfully pressured Jed McEntee into Stewart with overwhelming success in their last three meetings.
In addition to the defensive duo, however, Tom Hawkins (foot) and Cam Guthrie (Achilles) play in the VFL on Saturday morning as they look to stake their claims after long layoffs.
“Our plan all along was for them to play this week, so we’re going to continue with that,” Scott added.
“We remain optimistic, remain open-minded, keep all options on the table and make good decisions at this time.
“I will resist the temptation to over-predict; I I could sit here and speculate and it wouldn’t help anyone.”
Despite Hawkins’ absence as a forward against the Power, the Cats forward has shone as brightly as any other player this season. After kicking 18 behind for the night, things could have been remarkably better and better.
Superstars Jeremy Cameron and Tyson Stengle finished the night with four goals each, while Gryan Miers and Shaun Mannagh each scored three majors.
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Hawkins’ replacement Shannon Neale scored 2.2 from his nine disposals and nine points, making the looming selection decision on who to pick in two weeks’ time (depending on Hawkins’ fitness) more intriguing by the week.
When asked if he would like to see a preliminary final played in Geelong, rather than at the MCG where it will surely take place, Scott replied with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
“I think my position has always been that you should play your home games wherever you want,” he admitted.
“But the AFL is running the finals series and they have to work out whether that’s the right thing or not, and they’re balancing a lot of things that I don’t think about that much.
“They have the good of the game at their heart and all I care about is the Cats; So It makes sense that we disagree when we have those different perspectives.
“But a preliminary final (in Geelong)? Why not? It’s a pretty good stadium.
“What I am saying is that at some point the preliminary finals will be played on the Gold Coast, or at Giants Stadium, or Hobart.”
