Cats coach takes aim at ‘flawed’ system after ‘shattering’ blow

Geelong coach Chris Scott has described Tom Stewart’s unavailability for next week’s grand final as a “shattering situation” after the champion defender entered concussion protocols on Friday night during the Cats’ preliminary final win over Hawthorn.

Stewart was subbed out in the first quarter after having his head forcefully driven into the turf while being tackled by Hawks forward Mabior Chol.

The incident has already sparked fierce debate about the placement of the late-season bye, which currently occurs after the final round rather than prior to the grand final, given the fact that an affected player must remain in the protocols for 12 days and be unavailable to play during that period.

“I’m very pro a week off before the grand final, if we can sneak that in this year,” Scott joked.

“The Stewart one’s a bit hard to take right at the moment.”

Scott said the AFL’s introduction of the pre-finals bye nine years ago was based on flawed rationale, namely to prevent finals-bound teams from resting scores of key players in the last round, like Fremantle and North Melbourne did in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

“I understand it’s not optimal for the AFL to have masses of players rested for inconsequential games in the last home-and-away round of the year, but I just didn’t think that was a good enough reason,” Scott said.

“I feel that the clubs should have autonomy over this stuff, and it was in a period of time, too, where the AFL just couldn’t find another space for a bye during the year and then they found one overnight.”

Geelong champion Patrick Dangerfield produced one of the very best performances of his glittering 359-game career against the Hawks which saw him record 32 disposals (21 contested), eight clearances, nine inside 50s, three goals and 13 score involvements.

“He was born to play at this time of year and I hope it continues for a long, long time,” Scott said.

Shortly after Jack Henry's injury problem, Tom Stewart has been subbed out of the game with concussion in a horror start for the Cats.

“When we were under pressure, I just thought he was so influential.

“It felt like it did almost 10 years ago, when it was like, OK, something’s not going right, how do we get Patrick in the spots where he can influence?

“You can do a whole lot of things with older players to help them still perform well into their 30s but you’ve still got to have that will and ... that drive that Patrick has. Very few have it.”

Scott heads into his fourth grand final as Geelong coach next week, and he believes this is the most well-prepared side he has been at the helm of at this time of year.

“We’ve been pretty stable for a long time,” he said.

Scott also thinks his current crop is more flexible and versatile than the 2022 side that won the flag.

“When we move our players, they’re going from a good spot to another good spot,” he said.

With Geelong forced to make at least one change for the grand final, Scott intimated he was strongly considering bringing back ruckman Rhys Stanley and possibly moving Mark Blicavs into defence to fill the void left by Stewart.

After an early scare for Jack Henry against Hawthorn, when he had to be helped from the field by trainers with what looked like a serious foot injury, he was able to play out the game and should be available next week.

And Scott was rapt for star on-baller Max Holmes on finally getting a chance to play in a grand final after injury not only prevented him from being part of the 2022 flag, but also stopped him in his tracks during last year’s preliminary final when the Cats were in a good position to beat Brisbane.

“It would’ve been easy for him to spend a lot of time thinking, ‘Woe is me’, but he hasn’t done that at all, so it’s nice for him,” Scott said.