GEELONG won't be resting Joel Selwood from Sunday's clash with the Western Bulldogs, even though the Cats skipper has carried soreness into his recent games.
Selwood looked troubled by a hamstring problem at times during the win over Essendon on Friday night.
But with a nine-day break between that match and the meeting with the Dogs at Simonds Stadium, Cats coach Chris Scott is adamant that Selwood will play.
"He went into the game (against the Bombers) a little bit sore – not much worse than in previous weeks," Scott said.
"But when it rains it pours. He got a knock really early in the game to his hamstring, which made him even sorer and he struggled through a little bit.
"He was still a really influential player, I thought. But he'll be better this week.
"He already is better this week than he was at the same stage last week, so I don't think there'll be too many problems there."
The prognosis is not so good for another star midfielder, Mathew Stokes, who suffered a serious ankle injury against Gold Coast in round 14.
"He won't be considered in the short-term," Scott said. "It's still really hard to speculate, give in the first week or two he doesn't do much at all."
As for players on the fringe of the team, many Geelong fans have intrigued by Taylor Hunt's slide from favour and Jackson Thurlow's inability to break into the side.
Hunt hasn't played an AFL game since round nine, while Thurlow's only appearance at the highest level this season was against Port Adelaide in round six.
"(Hunt) has been an emergency a couple of times," Scott said. "He's probably suffering a little bit through the fact we're playing guys like Kelly back.
"We've got a big group of defenders.
"(Hunt) and Jackson Thurlow, we think, are probably defenders at the moment but are flexible enough to play in other positions, so we'll continue to try to find ways to get them back into the AFL team."
As Peter Ryan discussed in the most recent Numbers Game article, the Cats have been poor in the second halves of matches over the past two months.
Speaking on 3AW on Friday night, the club's chief executive, Brian Cook, said a tough fixture and a heavy training load were key reasons for the fade-outs.
When he fronted the media at Simonds Stadium on Tuesday, Scott added that, "One thing we're very, very confident of is we don't think it's a fitness issue.
"As I think you saw on the weekend, when the chips are down we're running out games well.
"It's just in second halves in general, the numbers are not going with us at the moment. But we're pretty confident we can fix it."
The Cats will do whatever it takes to keep Joel Selwood on the park. Picture: AFL Media
