GEELONG is preparing to be without Rhys Stanley for several weeks after spraining his medial ligament in last Saturday’s shock loss to Carlton.
Coach Chris Scott is hopeful he only misses Sunday’s clash with Melbourne.
“But the likely outcome is that it will be weeks,” Scott said.
“Maybe, on the really optimistic end, it’s just this week … after that, we’re not so sure.
“At the other end of the spectrum, we’re very, very confident it’s not a long-term thing.
“Where that fits in the middle, we’re not too sure.
Darcy Fort, who played in the Round 1 loss to the GWS Giants on March 21 is the logical replacement for Stanley.
However, Scott hasn’t ruled out Esava Ratugolea taking the role after a solid final quarter performance against the Blues.
“We always thought that Esava would grow into at least having the option up his sleeve of just being a ruckman,” Scott said.
“Actually, that’s not true; he’d never just be a ruckman because he’s such a competent forward.
“But, he’s a developing player in every sense of the word, and really trying to develop in two positions that are hard to play.
“If we chose to play Esava at some stage as our No.1 ruckman, we’d go in with confidence.”
Scott also didn’t put a line through All-Australian defender Mark Blicavs playing the role.
“‘Blitz’ could play a number of positions,” Scott said. “It’s more a question of us saying “bring the balance back to what’s best for Mark” because he’s go-to is “what’s best for the team?” – he’ll play any role.
“He could play on-ball, he could play in the ruck, he could play on the wing, play forward or back.
“This is going to be an unusual year where we’re going to have to stay flexible with our planning.
“The plan was to play him back virtually all the time, but if the team needs dictate he’s got to move, then we’ll do it.”
I would definitely get Fort if I knew there were at least 4 games for him, but this muddies the waters a bit. You'd hate to bring in Fort, only for him to score 40 against Gawn and then Stanley is ready to return the week after.
