{"id":113379,"date":"2025-09-02T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113379\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T14:42:11","slug":"geelong-veteran-rhys-stanley-in-doubt-for-blockbuster-final-against-brisbane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113379\/","title":{"rendered":"Geelong veteran Rhys Stanley in doubt for blockbuster final against Brisbane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geelong<\/a> could go into this week\u2019s blockbuster qualifying final against Brisbane without No.1 big man Rhys Stanley.<\/p>\n

Stanley hasn\u2019t been sighted at training this week and appears in some doubt for Friday night\u2019s clash at the MCG.<\/p>\n

7NEWS chief AFL<\/a> reporter Mitch Cleary revealed the veteran has been dealing with a hamstring concern.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really interesting … speaking to four different people at Geelong, they were unable to confirm Stanley\u2019s spot against Brisbane,\u201d Cleary said on The Agenda Setters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand he is dealing with a hamstring concern. He has dealt with hamstring concerns in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch this space on Rhys Stanley with the Cats unable to guarantee he will be there on Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GeelongGeelong ruck Rhys Stanley appears in some doubt for Friday night\u2019s clash. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

The Cats released their injury update on Tuesday afternoon, but there was no mention of Stanley.<\/p>\n

Stanley has played 18 games this year and has performed admirably in the ruck.<\/p>\n

Should he miss then the Cats still have other options in their team.<\/p>\n

Versatile utility Mark Blicavs looms as an obvious option, while Sam De Koning and Shannon Neale can also pinch it.<\/p>\n

Neale will return to the side after missing the final-round win over Richmond through suspension.<\/p>\n

The inclusion of Neale will likely be one of two changes with Irish gun Mark O\u2019Connor also in line to return.<\/p>\n

Mitch Knevitt, who started last match as the sub, and Jed Bews will be on the cusp of selection barring any injuries.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, star midfielder Max Holmes is adamant he won\u2019t be carrying the type of mental baggage that plagued his previous finals series.<\/p>\n

Holmes will play his 100th game against a familiar opponent in the finals.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old wasn\u2019t risked for Geelong\u2019s 2022 grand final win after injuring his hamstring in the preliminary final win over the Lions, while he was substituted out of last year\u2019s preliminary final loss to the Lions with another hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

When asked if he carried any baggage, Holmes said: \u201cActually, I think a little bit last year I did, and going into that game, I was a bit of a wreck.<\/p>\n

\u201c… I got sick before the game. I don\u2019t know how much my mental stuff going into the game affected that. It might have, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, I\u2019ve been a lot more comfortable with that, and I\u2019ve been pretty open moving into this game with how I felt last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pretty comfortable this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes hadn\u2019t put too much work into managing his emotions ahead of Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t wanted to put an over-emphasis on these games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there hasn\u2019t been too much work into it, because I don\u2019t want to work on it just for the finals and then panic because of all I\u2019ve worked it up to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holmes, who had a career-best season last year, has maintained his sensational form, averaging 26.9 disposals and 619 metres gained while kicking 11 goals.<\/p>\n

He has met his own high expectations, and thrived with the pressure-relieving addition of boom recruit Bailey Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been great for my game,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start of the year, especially considering I had a better year last year, I got a bit of a breakout year, I kind of put a lot of expectation on myself this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that was really eased by the fact that Bailey went well, and I felt like it was less necessary for me to play out of my boots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith opened up at the AFL\u2019s awards night last week about spending time in a mental health facility last year.<\/p>\n

Holmes recalled catching up with Smith for coffee when he was first traded to Geelong.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was real open about all the things he\u2019s been through through his life, and he\u2019s on a platform a lot, and he\u2019s in the spotlight a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuff\u2019s hard, and it was really brave of him the other day to talk about that stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been really vocal with us, and I think that was part of him thinking that we were concerned with some of the off-field antics, which wasn\u2019t the case anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he was really keen to speak to us about what he\u2019s been through and how he\u2019s working towards it going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been really good like that. We really trust him because of that and it was really great what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

– With AAP<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fremantle share heartbreaking photo days out from final<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Update emerges on future of Essendon captain Zach Merrett<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong could go into this week\u2019s blockbuster qualifying final against Brisbane without No.1 big man Rhys Stanley. Stanley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,13659,43,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-113379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-geelong-cats","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}