Patrick Dangerfield has eased fears over Geelong teammates Gary Ablett and Joel Selwood, declaring the pair certain starters in the AFL semi-final against Collingwood.
Retiring champion Ablett was quiet in the qualifying final defeat to Port Adelaide – his second game back from a stint out of the Cats team for family reasons – and was on light training duties early this week.
Selwood, meanwhile, has had surgery to repair his injured middle finger and faces a fitness test on Friday.
“Unless his leg was cut off, I reckon he’ll be out there,” Dangerfield said of Selwood on Wednesday.
“We haven’t trained yet, but unless you run him over in a car on the way back, I would very much expect the skipper to be leading the way come Saturday night.”
Two-time Brownlow medallist Ablett will call time on his decorated career at the end of the season and Saturday’s semi-final could be the 36-year-old’s final AFL appearance after 19 years in the competition.
Dangerfield, who said Ablett is fit to play, said keeping the Little Master’s career alive isn’t a specific motivating factor for the Cats.
“Not really, and I’m sure it wouldn’t be in Gaz’s mind either because there’s so much to look forward to and so much to play for,” he said.
Geelong’s poor finals record in recent seasons has been a talking point since the Port Adelaide loss, which left the Cats with a 4-12 ledger since the 2011 premiership in Chris Scott’s first year as coach.
Dangerfield denied the record left a heavy burden on the players’ shoulders.
“Whilst there’s a pattern and we’d like to have won more finals than we have, we’re still playing finals every year,” he said.
“We could bomb out, like a few do, and then return in five years or we could compete every year.
“That’s what this team has shown under Chris and under the players that are involved.
“Every season is different. We had some (finals) where we just weren’t good enough and got blown out of the water, but I don’t think that was necessarily the case on the weekend.”
Dangerfield, the AFL Players’ Association president, announced the collective playing group will donate its non-competing player ticket allocation for this year’s grand final to community football clubs in Queensland.