ANOTHER pause has been hit on Jonathon Ceglar’s stop-star first season at Geelong, with the ruck suffering a concussion in the VFL win over Sandringham on Sunday at GMHBA Stadium.
After making his debut for the Cats at AFL level last week, the former Hawk was squeezed out by the return of Rhys Stanley and was the medi-sub against St Kilda on Saturday night.
He wasn’t required against the Saints and lined up at state league level, but his day was done early in the second quarter of Geelong’s narrow 14.6 (90) to 13.10 (88) victory over the Zebras.
“He copped a fend-off from an opposition player and it got him in the head and he got a bit of concussion and didn’t pass the test,” VFL coach Shane O’Bree told krockfootball.com.au.
“It wasn’t a sickening incident; it was one of those rare ones where a guy fends off and accidentally gets you in the head.
“He’s very unlucky, with the year he’s had trying to get himself right and the consistency of playing multiple games in a row.
“We’ll get him through this little challenge and get him fit and raring to go again for whatever happens going forward.”
It was better news for fellow veteran Shaun Higgins as he stakes a late claim to be part of Geelong’s AFL premiership push.
In his first game since minor knee surgery, the 34-year-old gathered 23 disposals and had seven clearances.
Higgins told K rock Football he expected to be capped at 9km, but O’Bree said he covered more than that.
“He was feeling OK and moving OK,” O’Bree said.
“Towards the end of the game, we played him a lot deeper forward, which allowed him to still have an impact but do no damage to his body.
“He wanted to be out there and help the boys, which was great to see from a guy with his leadership.”
Out-of-contract midfielder Quinton Narkle was also influential for Geelong.
He finished with 29 disposals.
“Narks had had a challenging five or six weeks with a couple of little niggles,” O’Bree said.
“His form hasn’t been as good as he would have liked, but today he just narrowed the focus and went back to what his strengths are around the contest and exploding away.
“He got a lot of the ball and did that today and was pretty damaging by foot.”
Debutant Osca Riccardi, son of Geelong great Peter, gathered 13 disposals, took three marks, laid two tackles and kicked a crucial goal.
“He went really well; he played on the wing,” O’Bree said. “He’s lightly-framed, but that didn’t hold him back.
“His first few contests were really contested, and he won them for us.
“You can see the attributes he’s got like his old man with his running capability on the outside and his kicking penetration, and he kicked a lovely goal from nearly on 50m off one step.”
Geelong, despite the win, is officially out of the finals race.
Its penultimate match of the season is a trip to Box Hill on Saturday afternoon.
Twitter: @krockfootball
