Geelong are toying with shifting five-time All Australian defender Tom Stewart to the midfield in their bid to rebound from missing the AFL finals.
The Cats are bullish about the prospect of a successful Stewart move which is likely to be tested in pre-season games.
“I would love to see it,” Cats assistant coach James Kelly told reporters on Tuesday. “I have spent a fair bit of time coaching the backline and it’s maybe a bit counter-intuitive for me to say that Tom shouldn’t be there.
“But I think it can only benefit the team. He’s big, he’s fit, he’s powerful.
“If you somehow could manufacture having him and (captain) Pat (Dangerfield) around the ball at the same time, it would be pretty hard to defend, I reckon.”
Stewart won his second club best-and-fairest award last year when Geelong fell flat. After winning the 2022 premiership, they slipped to 10th amid a spate of injuries.
Star on-baller Cam Guthrie was among the lengthy injured list, managing the first six games but then missing the rest of the season after foot surgery.
But the creative 31-year-old has impressed during Geelong’s pre-season.
“He looks really good – he’s unbelievably professional, unbelievably diligent,” Kelly said.
“He had some time away at the end of last year and has come back just a really happy person and ready to train.
“It was a really long year for him, he had a niggling injury that he couldn’t get over.
“There was a time there where he might have got back and that’s the sort of the worst time to be in as a player, when you’re in sort of flux.”
Tom Stewart. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Guthrie was among a batch of Geelong players who have remedied ailments during the longer pre-season after missing the finals.
“Last year didn’t finish the way we wanted it to finish,” Kelly said.
“But the benefit of that is we have had a really long pre-season, longer than we’ve had for the previous four or five years.
“And we’ve had a lot of players that have come back fresh and got a lot of work in.
“You never want to say that, we have always wanted to bat that deep in finals, that’s always our aim.
“But in terms of how we can rebound into 2024, that’s the benefit for us.”
Mr Right
Roar Rookie
No expectations, no disappointments.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
Rowdy, talking about Green but just noticed his averages are better than I thought.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Will likely last as long as Darcy Moore tried forward
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I loved goalkeeping in both; football or hockey
PeteB
Roar Rookie
Sounds like typical preseason BS to me. It won’t happen and if it does it won’t be persisted with for long. AFL and it’s media scrambling to get something, just anything, into the news.
Windrince
Roar Rookie
Stewart was about the only part of our team that did work last year and now he's the one we're messing around with - don't know what we're thinking
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Who wants to see the world? That takes you away from Australia.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
= Imodium
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Waxing a little Archimedes there Pythagoras
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Rankine = Stoinis? Yah kidding me?
mrl
Roar Rookie
Soccer goalkeeping is still is priority. If he’s good enough he can see the world! He’s only playing Aussie Rules because not many kids at his school want to play. However, if he’s good enough he can see Melbourne!
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
i reckon so far he is overrated, like Stoinis in limited over cricket. I hope both prove me wrong when they do well under pressure.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
If the father know enough, the son will have a solid foundation. If he struggles, there's always union or league. If he can't play ball sports, there's still soccer.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
More promise than Green but l hear ya :thumbup:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Ofc, it may not happen, but l think things will turn for the better. Good players gelling. Like Green in the cricket l hope they don't ride Rankine to be everything
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
If you mean to smother you won't get hurt. When you smother you've gotta say, "It's better him than me if someone's gonna get hurt"
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
he is a great player, so will be interesting to see where he plays
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
I'm a firm believer of don't feck around with things when they work.
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Fair enough why not have optimism. The dogs should finish between 6th- 12th
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Doc with your backs to the wall options aplenty :stoked: