Geelong is hopeful star forward Jeremy Cameron has avoided a major injury but will sweat on “precautionary” scans after he went to hospital on Saturday.
Cameron looked primed for a big afternoon after kicking two early goals but took no further part after a heavy collision with Essendon defender Jayden Laverde before quarter-time.
He hurt a hip pointer in the contest but there is greater concern about the area above that to his chest, given coach Chris Scott reported after the Cats’ 11-goal win that he went “downhill”.
Young backman Sam De Koning is already out of next Friday night’s clash with the Swans after suffering a concussion in the third quarter.
“(Cameron) seemed to be OK, so his knock was to the body. There’s no concussion issue there,” Scott said.
“Jeremy just couldn’t get going and we were prepared to wait as long as possible but he was going downhill, not improving.
“My understanding is that they’ve sent him off for a precautionary scan but I couldn’t even tell you exactly where it is.
“The feedback I’ve got is they’re comfortable he’s OK but they just want to double check (his internal status).”
Scott was thrilled with what he saw against the Bombers, from Patrick Dangerfield returning to his best, Brandan Parfitt highlighting their emerging youth and recruit Tyson Stengle kicking four goals on debut.
The 2011 premiership coach also highlighted De Koning’s effort before he went off, as well as Esava Ratugolea, Max Holmes and Francis Evans.
But it was Dangerfield that Scott was most bullish about.
“I don‘t want to go too far in my praise of him but I thought he just took the game away from the opposition early on,” he said.
“We’ve been confident in him more so than the last couple of years because he has endured some physical limitations … our medical and sports science team have done a terrific job with him.
“We think there are reasons some of our more experienced players haven’t quite physically been at their best and their reasons have nothing to do with age.
“He looked like the ‘Danger’ of a few years ago. He’s been good for us the last couple of years but … put it this way, you can’t be the dominant player in the competition if you’re limited physically.”
Scott stopped short of making any grand statements about his side’s prospects but said they had made it clear to their players they planned to give them “a chance to win it”.
