Geelong coach Chris Scott has explained the process undertaken by the Cats to determine a player's availability after the club made late withdrawals of Bailey Smith in Round 2 and Tom Stewart on Saturday night after naming both in the respective line-ups.
Smith sustained calf soreness after the Cats' emphatic Round 1 victory against Fremantle, and despite limited training throughout the week, was named to take on the Saints in Round 2. However, Smith was pulled out of the side on the day of the Marvel Stadium encounter, outraging AFL pundits for Geelong's silence on the significance of Smith's injury until matchday.
In the St Kilda clash, Tom Stewart also appeared to have hurt his PCL but was ruled to have just a minor knee injury. During the week, Scott said he "expected" Stewart to play, but once again, the Cats named a late change with Stewart missing the clash.
Scott said that ultimately Geelong decided to "err on the side of caution" for Stewart on Saturday and defended the club's approach to injured players.
"What I'll tell you is we always take as long as possible, different to what I understand of some other systems where they want certainty earlier in the week," Scott said.
'We take as long as we possibly can to make a good decision. It's a little complicated when you're travelling, and it's not ideal putting a guy on the plane and then having him not play, but it is an indication of how close we thought he was.
"He did a little bit today, and just didn't feel quite right, so we were always going to err on the side of caution, which meant that if he was a fair way off yesterday, when we got on the plane, we just wouldn't have brought him.
"But we gave him a chance to play, and I'm told that we should be really confident that he'll be right next week."
After Geelong's precautionary approach to Smith, the Bulldogs recruit returned in strong form in the Cats' loss, recording 25 disposals and 11 tackles. With the Cats needing a Round 4 win to avoid three straight defeats, Scott will be hoping a Stewart return will have a winning influence against Melbourne on Friday night.
