Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield will make his long-awaited AFL return for Geelong this Saturday.
The Cats star has been out of motion since spherical 10 after injuring his calf on Might 21, however the 32-year-old’s comeback has been all however confirmed for Saturday’s blockbuster towards Richmond.
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“We think so,” Geelong coach Chris Scott advised reporters on Wednesday.
“We’d like to see this (training) session today especially but our plan has been pretty conservative in terms of the injury management, getting enough work into Patrick which he was denied earlier in the year.
“Every indication is that he’ll be ready to go.
“But I must say that over the next whatever it is, eight or nine weeks to finish off the year, that we won’t hesitate with any of our players to play it a bit more conservatively if that is what the data is telling us.
“It’s exciting that it looks as if Dustin Martin is back (for the Tigers) and Patrick Dangerfield is back, I hope they get to play on each other a bit.”
Scott additionally responded to dialogue round the Cats’ well-documented heavy training load throughout their bye, saying the commentary round it has been “a little overblown”.
“It hasn’t been a departure from what we have been doing in previous years,” he mentioned.
“There’s always a balance for us … we certainly won’t have any excuses going into this game.
“We think our preparation has been good for the longer term for the couple of months to come, but by this week we think we’re primed to play well.”
The veteran coach additionally heaped reward on his star key ahead Jeremy Cameron, who performs his 2 hundredth sport at the weekend.
“He played such good footy against us (when he played for GWS),” Scott mentioned.
“It can be a little bit of a trap when you look at opposition players who tend to play well against your team, and you can overrate them a little bit – that certainly hasn’t been the case. But we did hold him in very high regard (when he played against us).
“Just little things that continue to shock me. The ability to kick the ball so far around his body is something I’ve never seen before.”
Veteran utility Shaun Higgins, who hasn’t been sighted at AFL stage since spherical seven, will play in the VFL this weekend, and can push for AFL choice subsequent week.
– with AAP
