A spring-loaded Ryan Gamble bounced straight back into senior contention with a standout performance in Geelong’s 39-point VFL loss to the Casey Scorpions in Casey on Sunday.

Playing his first VFL match of the season, Gamble unleashed his trademark repertoire of high marking and creative brilliance in attack to finish with four goals.

It was not enough to propel the undermanned, but gallant, Cats to victory, who again struggled to keep pace with their opposition the longer the match went on.

Harry Taylor and Tom Hawkins, whose potential appearance in the VFL drew much anticipation, were noticeable late-withdrawals with general soreness.

The pair spearheaded a chaotic week for the Cats’ squad, which experienced a turnover of 10 players from the side that went down to North Ballarat two weeks ago.

Brodie Moles (ankle) and Matt Firman (hamstring), both named in the squad, failed last-minute fitness tests, while Dawson Simpson and Dan McKenna were ruled out early in the week with soreness.

Gamble, looking in ominous form when isolated one-on-one and on the lead, exploded into prominence early with three first-quarter goals as he mastered the tricky wind conditions.

He played the first three quarter from the goal square as a leading forward, before shifting into the midfield in the final quarter, where his class emerged.

Despite his performance, which earned the plaudits of coach Leigh Tudor, Gamble found himself lamenting the Cats’ third straight VFL loss and deflected praise of his 18-possession game.

“It was ok I suppose, it wasn’t really about me today, it was about the team, but we didn’t do too well as a team down forward, which was disappointing, but I was happy to kick a few goals,” Gamble said.

“Hopefully (I’ve put my hand up for selection), I don’t know what happens at selection, they do what they need to do to pick the team, so we’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.”

Tudor said Gamble delivered the high-level performance expected of him.

“I was pleased (with how he played today), he played an AFL-type game for us today,” Tudor said.

“He was fantastic, he kicked three goals in the first quarter and really set us up early and when he was playing on-ball, he won his own ball as well, so it was a really good effort for him today.”

Tudor was quick to single out Kane Tenace, declaring the speedy wingman’s 35-disposal performance one of the best he had produced all season.

“Kane today, it was one of his better games of the year and he did well for us as an on-baller and he showed he could really run the game out well for us as an on-baller, which was good,” Tudor said.

“He made good decisions and he actually won a lot of the ball, we wanted him to get back to winning his own ball, and he used it really well when he won it.”

Tudor said Gamble and Tenace had done all they could to impress the match committee, but would not speculate as to whether they had done enough to move into senior contention this week.

“Who knows, I haven’t really looked back at the game, but of the AFL guys, obviously Kane and Vegas have played well,” he said.

“Whether that puts them into contention I don’t know, one game, but they were the guys that seemed to play well today.”

Tudor said he was thrilled with the VFL-listed players embraced the challenge of filling the void left by the mass turnover of players from last week.

The Cats played 11 VFL-listed players, including three VFL debutants – Grovedale’s Jeremy Larcombe, Portarlington’s Tom Dewey and St Joseph’s Ben Kirk.

“The best thing about today’s game was we had to go pretty deep into our VFL list and Tom Dewey and Ben Kirk showed that whenever we have injuries and we need them to play,” he said.

“They’ll step up and play good, strong football and try to do the team things for us, and that was really exciting that quite a few of our VFL boys got their opportunity today.

“I thought Ben and Tom were outstanding in playing their first game and trying to do the things we wanted them to do and also Simon Potter and (Sam) Stavenuiter could have easily been in our best.

“(Drew) Barnes and Ryan Butler were also good, it was a good opportunity to have another look at the VFL boys, but the best thing about it was the fact that we saw that the first gamers, Dewey and Kirk, we’ll have no hesitation in picking them anytime we need them.”

The Cats, who remain in eighth position, face Bendigo at Queen Elizabeth Oval this Sunday.