Scott open-minded about recalling stalwarts for AFL Prelim

GEELONG coach Chris Scott will recall one star and remains open-minded to bringing back another proven trio for his club’s AFL Preliminary Final.

Tom Stewart is expected to return after being a late scratching from the Cats’ 84-point hammering of Port Adelaide on Thursday last week.

The qualifying final romp at Adelaide Oval secured Geelong an MCG Preliminary Final next weekend – the club’s 13th prelim in 18 years.

But veterans Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie, and ruck Sam De Koning, will be forced to press their claims for recalls in VFL ranks.

Hawkins (foot) and Guthrie (Achilles) and De Koning played in Geelong’s VFL semi-final on Saturday.

De Koning returned from a knee injury in state league ranks last weekend and was an unused emergency for the Cats’ qualifying final against the Power.

Five-time All Australian Stewart was pulled from the Geelong side that dished out Port Adelaide’s second-biggest finals loss with a 20.18 (138) to 7.12 (58) triumph.

Stewart was substituted out of Geelong’s last home-and-away game because of hamstring tightness but fell ill in Adelaide.

“He had a good couple of weeks of training and we were really optimistic that he would be right,” Scott said after the First Qualifying Final.

“But as always, and this has been our history… you don’t need to think too far back to big games where we make conservative calls even on really good players who have had some doubt.

“So we were still sort of weighing that up [on Wednesday night] and he started to come down with a bit of the ‘flu.

“And then by the time he woke up [on Thursday] he was crook enough that he wouldn’t play, so it just made the decision for him and us a little bit easier.

“Hand on heart, we were leaning towards not playing him.”

He said Geelong had made a conservative call with De Koning as well.

“They’re perfect examples of when you play well, we go: ‘A great decision’.

“And if we’d have played poorly it would have been: ‘What could have been if we had played Stewart and De Koning’?”

Geelong’s games record-holder Hawkins has been sidelined by his foot injury for more than two months. The 36-year-old announced last month he will retire at season’s end.

Guthrie has played only four AFL games this year.

Asked about the pair’s AFL Preliminary Final prospects, Scott said his rationale would be “stay optimistic, stay open-minded”.

“Keep all the options on the table and make good decisions in the moment, resist the temptation to forecast too much.

“I could sit here and speculate and it wouldn’t help anyone.”

– WITH AAP