Geelong coach Chris Scott has put his club’s recent spate of hamstring injuries down to bad luck, and he’s doing his best not to get frustrated by it.
Cats skipper Joel Selwood lasted less than a quarter before injuring his right hamstring in Thursday night’s 22-point loss to Collingwood.
A week earlier, Cats duo Mitch Duncan and Quinton Narkle also injured their hamstrings.
The compromised lead-in to the AFL’s season restart meant players were always going to be a higher chance of injuring themselves, despite the shorter quarters.
Scott isn’t sure what caused the recent hamstring setbacks, but he’s trying his best to keep his cool about them.
“Often you just have bad luck, these things happen,” Scott said.
“It’s the most common injury in the AFL, it has been for a long time.
“I’m just trying to avoid the situation where we get really frustrated by it, because that’s really where we are in the season. I think everyone is there.
“We’re going to have our short-term frustrations, we’ve got to make sure we don’t build them up.”
Although Selwood’s strain doesn’t appear serious, the Cats are sweating on the extent of Jordan Clark’s shoulder injury.
Clark dislocated his right shoulder during the third quarter, and will undergo scans to determine the extent of the damage.
Geelong had no answers to Jordan De Goey’s five-goal haul, but the free-kick count that read 22-10 in favour of Collingwood raised some eyebrows.
Cats recruit Josh Jenkins even tweeted: “Do we allow these umpires back into our hotel after the game !?!”
“I think Josh is trying to be funny,” Scott said of that Tweet.
“My experience with him is he is quite funny. It sounds like he’s missed the mark a little bit on that one.
“We’ve got the luxury of looking at the vision from all angles and making an assessment slowly.
“The umpires are a bit like us, they haven’t had much practice. it was the first time in front of crowds, not that it should have made a difference.
“If they were a bit rusty, I think they have an alibi.”
The Cats lost the inside-50m count 46-31, and Scott conceded Collingwood were simply better on the night.
Geelong have an 11-day break before taking on Fremantle at Optus Stadium.