{"id":371638,"date":"2024-02-29T09:15:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T10:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371638"},"modified":"2024-02-29T21:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T21:05:31","slug":"the-silver-lining-in-cats-major-injury-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371638","title":{"rendered":"The 'silver lining' in Cats major injury loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

G\ufeffeelong<\/a> premiership defender Mark Blicavs says the Cats' extended off season has been a blessing in disguise, as he looks to move to a more mobile role in 2024.<\/p>\n

With the loss of superstar midfielder Cam Guthrie to a right quadricep tendon injury that has ruled him out for up to 10 weeks<\/a>, Blicavs, who has spent most of his recent time down back, could be on the move.<\/p>\n

\ufeffGuthrie hasn't played a senior match since round six last year, battling toe injuries, and is now set back even further with his quad.<\/p>\n

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It's a blow no Cats fans wanted to see, but it gives 32-year-old Blicavs the chance to come back into a second ruckman, winger role that saw him win Geelong's best and fairest in 2015 and 2018.<\/p>\n

It brings a versatility that Geelong desperately craves.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

"I'm working on a couple of things. My role this year will be similar to previous years where it could be a lot of different varieties," Blicavs said in Geelong on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Blicavs hopes he'll be able to play with the same freedom that saw him dominant during Geelong's premiership season in 2022\ufeff, moving freely from the backline, through the middle and ultimately up forward when the Cats required.<\/p>\n

He knows however that without his great mate Guthrie, a big hole still exists.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"You don't cover it, cause he's a pretty good player on the attacking end and defensive end," Blicavs said.<\/p>\n

\"Cats<\/p>\n

"But if I can complement it\ufeff, through the midfield and wing. I really enjoyed being up around the ball and I suppose, being that second … ruck, helping the ruckmen that we've got coming in."<\/p>\n

After finishing off Geelong's poor 2023 season with a hamstring injury, Blicavs underwent off season shoulder surgery, coming back\ufeff fitter than ever.<\/p>\n

He declared the longer break, which didn't include a finals appearance for just the second time in his career, was much needed to return feeling properly refreshed.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

"For me personally, I have enjoyed the long break.\ufeff Obviously it was a disappointing end to the season, we wanted to play finals. But you do look at that silver lining," Blicavs said.<\/p>\n

Geelong will host St Kilda in round one on Saturday, March 16 as they unveil their new Selwood Stand, named after four-time premiership star Joel Selwood<\/a>, increasing the capacity of GMHBA stadium to more than 40,000.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Hopefully we can fill it with 40,000 fans sold out for skip, former skip Sel (Joel Selwood), still call him skip," Blicavs said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G\ufeffeelong premiership defender Mark Blicavs says the Cats' extended off season has been a blessing in disguise, as he looks to move to a more […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371644,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371638\/revisions\/371644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/371640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}