GEELONG will have close to a full list to choose from for Sunday’s qualifying final with St Kilda but coach Mark Thompson is reluctant to make a bevy of changes.
Thompson says he is in for a tough time at the selection table this week as he tries to squeeze up to four premiership players into a team that not only thrashed West Coast by 99 points last week, but has won its past 13 matches.
That might be too tough, and the premiership coach believes making so many alterations might be too harsh on those already entrenched in the 22.
“I don’t think we’ll make four changes,” Thompson said on Tuesday.
“I don’t think that there’s four guys that deserve to be out of the team.
“It’ll just make selection a very difficult process.”
James Kelly, Andrew Mackie, Max Rooke and David Wojcinski are all in the selection mix, although Kelly seems only an outside chance at this stage as he battles to overcome a quad strain.
“We’ll probably have three back,” Thompson said.
“Wojcinski’s available and played the last two matches [in the VFL], Rookie’s available because he’s served his suspension and Mackie is back [and] and he only had a slight back ailment.
“So the one that is still in doubt and has not ticked all the boxes is Kelly, and we’ll probably find more out later in the week and it’s probably a good thing for him we’re playing on Sunday because it gives him an extra day.”
Thompson said the midfielder was “very close” but still needed to run at top pace and show he could kick over long range to prove his fitness.
Meanwhile, young forward Tom Hawkins is still very much in contention for a finals berth, according to Thompson, despite the full-forward position being Tom Lonergan’s “spot at the moment”.
The Cats coach said Hawkins, who booted six and four goals in the final two VFL games of the season, was “absolutely” in the finals frame but Lonergan had not put a foot wrong since coming into the senior side.
“He [Hawkins] is just moving along very nicely … [but] something would have to happen for Tom to get in.”
