Geelong will be forced to take a makeshift ruck division into Friday night’s AFL semi-final against North Melbourne after Hamish McIntosh was ruled out with a sore knee.
With McIntosh to miss the chance of squaring off against former teammate Todd Goldstein in the cut-throat MCG clash, the Cats will rely on part-time ruckmen Mark Blicavs and Josh Walker, with key forward Tom Hawkins a chance to also do some tap work.
Mercurial utility Steve Johnson is one of several key Cats still under a cloud, with Allen Christensen an uncertain prospect with his back complaint and Steven Motlop a more likely starter against the Kangaroos.
Johnson returned last weekend against Hawthorn after a three-week layoff with a foot injury, but was far from his best in the qualifying-final loss.
Coach Chris Scott said Johnson was now in better shape than after the game.
“It doesn’t guarantee he’s going to play but it’s certainly a good sign,” he said.
Johnson’s history with injuries means the Cats have trodden this path before.
Scott said he would be leaning on Johnson and his medical team to make a final call.
“If he can’t do the job for the team, he will let me know, I’ve got the utmost confidence in that,” Scott said.
“But he does have a remarkable record of playing very well through pain.”
McIntosh was ruled out by Scott on Tuesday morning, having bounced back from an injury-decimated 2013 to play 19 matches in his second season at the Cattery since crossing from North Melbourne.
“Hamish is sore and he won’t play this week,” said Scott.
“We’re hopeful Hamish can go through a rehab plan over the next week or week and a half to get himself in a position if we’re good enough to win on Friday night, to play the following week.
“We’ve got a few options with Josh Walker coming into the team.
“We effectively played with three ruckmen last week, as a bare minimum we could go in with Walker and Blicavs in the ruck but we’ve got some other more left-field options we’re considering as well.”
Geelong’s other genuine ruckman Dawson Simpson is out for the season with a back problem.
There’s no talk of taking things for granted this week by Geelong, even though both qualifying-final losers have bounced back to win the following week every year since 2007.
“It would be very inconsistent of me to draw on that statistic considering I don’t think things that happened years and years ago have much relevance to what’s happening this week,” said Scott.
“But we’re looking forward to the opportunity to make amends on Friday night.”
The club received a piece of strong news on Tuesday, with state Opposition leader Daniel Andrews pledging a $70 million redevelopment of Simonds Stadium if the ALP win the state election on November.
The Brownlow and Jennings Stands would be replaced under the plan, which would increase capacity to 36,000.
