AFL legend Leigh Matthews believes Geelong would be ruing not selecting Esava Ratugolea for last week’s Qualifying Final loss to Port Adelaide.
Power defender Aliir Aliir took four intercept marks in the first quarter which unsettled the Cats’ forwards and helped restrict Chris Scott’s side to just 43 points - their lowest score of the season.
Matthews, a four-time premiership coach, says Ratugolea would have been a suitable match-up for Aliir instead of the smaller Geelong forwards he was opposed to on Friday night.
“One of the things that hit me on Friday night, Match Committee might go for half an hour, an hour, two hours, three hours, but so much debate is what do you do with your 21st and 22nd player?” Matthews told Sportsday.
“Most players pick themselves, but then how do we top up the team?
“Geelong on Friday night, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall because after the selection you have the what if scenarios.
“You’re going to pick (Jeremy) Cameron and (Tom) Hawkins and (Gary) Rohan, but knowing that (Tom) Jonas, (Trent) McKenzie and Aliir are going to take those kinds of match-ups, they complemented their forward group with (Sam) Simpson, (Brad) Close, (Luke) Dahlhaus and (Gryan) Miers, all fairly small or fairly slow.
“Big Esava Ratugolea was an emergency and (Shaun) Higgins was the medical sub – I reckon they’d love that game all over again because you would have thought a what if scenario would be if Aliir gets hold of Rohan or Simpson or Close or Dahlhaus … he’s just too big and strong.
“Maybe we just needed a big man in there like Ratugolea so Aliir, McKenzie and Jonas had someone they had to play on.
“I reckon Geelong would like the game over again.”
Geelong will look to bounce back in Friday night’s Semi-Final clash against GWS at Optus Stadium in Perth.
The Cats are 1-8 in the first week of finals since 2012 under Scott.