Geelong coach Chris Scott has defended his AFL side's late team changes, saying the club strives for transparency.
Confusion reigned in the lead-up to Sunday's 24-point win over North Melbourne when the Cats added skipper Joel Selwood, then withdrew him.
Initially named as an emergency, Selwood was announced as a late replacement for Sam Menegola (knee) 90 minutes before the opening bounce.
Thirty minutes later, the Cats declared Selwood unfit and named Charlie Constable as his replacement.
Scott later revealed Selwood had been battling a lower-leg issue, separate to the upper-leg injury that had sidelined him the week before.
Geelong have made minimal late changes this season but have generally had a reputation under Scott for frequent last-minute alterations.
"We try to be as transparent as possible," said Scott, who noted Geelong had informed North as soon as they opted to withdraw Selwood.
"I haven't put any thought into how the system could be any better but I do understand there are integrity issues.
"There's a big cohort of football followers out there that want that information early because they either want to bet - and I don't give a second thought to people who bet, we've got a job to do and it's not to consider them - but even fantasy teams and stuff like that.
"I understand why we've got to do it but we don't muck around with it."
Scott noted it was particularly difficult to name a team for Sunday games on Friday when there was still doubt over players.
The Cats had expected Patrick Dangerfield (knee) to be ruled out against North until he proved his fitness on Saturday.
Selwood trained well at the same session but didn't feel right immediately before the game.
The Cats expect Selwood to be available for the Western Bulldogs next Saturday but may not risk bringing him straight back.
"We're really confident he will be right," Scott said.
"We're going to prioritise training with him because it's just not good practice, in our view, to have a really good player not train for a long period of time and then just bring him in against a good opposition and hope he can get through."
The Cats are unsure when forward Gary Rohan will be available after he was knocked out in a third-quarter head clash with Sam Durdin.
Key defender Tom Stewart earlier passed a concussion test, while Tom Atkins played out the game with hip soreness.
Share
