FIRST-ROUND draft selection Jordan Clark has been named to make his debut in the hoops as Geelong takes on the Eagles in the club’s first JLT community series clash for the year.
Luke Dahlhaus, Gary Rohan, Tom Atkins and Darcy Fort will also wear the white and blue for the first time at Leederville Oval in Perth.
Clark has been turning heads on the training track with coach Chris Scott has naming the rebounding defender as the Cats’ standout young recruit on the track.
“We don’t like individualising too much, but the draft order tends to be a little bit of a guide in terms of how we rate the new players into our club,” Scott told AFL.com.au.
“He hasn’t done himself any harm with his work through the pre-season.”
“This year he’s shown the capacity to absorb the training load that we’ve put into him and he has performed well so far – he’d be the logical one that would step up we think.”
Defensive teammate and Carji Greeves medallist Mark Blicavs has also been impressed with what the young defender has been able to produce.
“He has amazing speed, he’s lightning quick and he’s able to take the game on and his defensive pressure is good,” Blicavs says.
“I’m excited to see him play hopefully early in the games hopefully early in the season and see what he can do because I think he’s going to be very good.”
TEAM
B: J Kolodjashnij, M Blicavs, L Henderson
HB: M Duncan, H Taylor, T Stewart
C: G Rohan, P Dangerfield, J Henry
HF: S Menegola, E Ratugolea, C Guthrie
F: B Parfitt, T Hawkins, L Dahlhaus
R: R Stanley, J Selwood, T Kelly
INT: G Miers, Q Narkle, M O’Connor, T Atkins, J Clark, D Fort, Z Guthrie, C Constable
EMG: G Ablett, R Abbott, J Parsons, J Jones
