COULD Mark Blicavs be Geelong's not-so-secret finals wildcard?
Over the last few weeks, the original footy unicorn has ticked off the last role in the footy position bucket list – key forward.
Standing at 198cm, he joked he has now played every possible role in the game aside from small forward, kicking two goals against Essendon on Friday night.
"It's something a bit different. Shannon (Neale) and 'Tys' (Tyson Stengle) are just putting me where they want me. 'Scratch' (Neale) is awesome with his voice and setting up where we need to be, and I haven't done it as much, so just learning, and he's putting me where he wants me. It's another different role, but I'm still really enjoying it," Blicavs said.
"It's good, I'm still doing my second ruck role and getting high up the ground, but over the last month I've been trying to improve [my forward work]. Who knows if we continue with it, it's just something we continue looking at, but it's been good.
"I like the variety. I'm not really a routine person, so I like the different roles each week, it keeps each week of training pretty fresh. I really enjoy it."
Blicavs is in attack effectively in place of Ollie Henry (who was dropped in round 18), and makes for a towering forward line, along with 196cm Jeremy Cameron and 203cm Neale, who has already kicked a career-high 37 goals this year.
Cameron is still in the hunt for the magical 100-goal season, but accuracy eluded him on Friday night, kicking 4.5.
"It's awesome. The crowd was really good too, you know when he's around. We want to get it in his hands, but we don't want to get it in his hands unnecessarily, or costing us, it's a fine balance," Blicavs said.
"But the work he's doing off ball is really good at the moment, he's moving really well, which is creating opportunities for us. We're excited, and we'd love to see him do it, but we definitely want to do it the team way, that's for sure."
Geelong currently sits second, although it's been far from an imperious season, with losses to Carlton, Greater Western Sydney (twice) and Brisbane (twice) scattered throughout the past months.
A brief glance at the scorecard from Friday night assumes a comfortable 44-point win over an undermanned Essendon, but the Cats weren't at their best.
The usual post-match process for Geelong is to sing the song, then break into media commitments and family chats, but coach Chris Scott called them into an immediate meeting behind closed doors.
"Honestly, I don't know [how we stack up]. We're improving, but we've got a lot of work to do. But I also think our best is good enough, so we're somewhere in between," Blicavs said.
"We've got another couple of games to go – it's a big game against Sydney – the way we've played the season so far has given us a good opportunity to finish in the top four, and that's the aim. We're really working hard to tick that off, and from there, who knows. Ask me in a couple of weeks.
"Scotty was saying we've got a really good opportunity ahead of us, and we'll recover well, review it, but it's a big game against Sydney, and he wanted to make us aware of that opportunity, really.
"It's nothing we don't know and haven't heard before. I really like those, it's a good time for us to take a breath and settle before we do media and speak to our families."
