{"id":372009,"date":"2024-03-01T10:58:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T11:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=372009"},"modified":"2024-03-02T02:05:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T02:05:12","slug":"young-cat-plays-down-silly-ankle-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=372009","title":{"rendered":"Young Cat plays down 'silly' ankle injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geelong<\/a> young speedster Max Holmes shut down injury concerns with a stellar performance against Essendon<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Cats defeated the Bombers by 12 points at GMHBA Stadium, with Holmes collecting an impressive 29 disposals before being put on ice towards the end of the match.<\/p>\n

The young star rolled his ankle in an innocuous tackle, but was seen all smiles on the bench, even giving the camera a thumbs up as he was being treated by medical staff.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Here to dominate': Green stunner flips first Test<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I said no to putting the ice on because I knew that it would just be, I don't know, silly," Holmes said on Fox post match.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Two weeks and we'll be right."<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Meantime, the Cats played in front of a crowd of around 11,000 on Friday night, giving their players a small taste of what's to come when the new Joel Selwood stand officially opens in round one, taking the capacity to 40,000.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We're pumped, we were just talking about that, it's already super loud\ufeff now that it's all closed off.<\/p>\n

"40,000 will come in (here) in a couple of weeks and we just can't wait for it."<\/p>\n

Holmes gained 500 metres in the opening half playing across the wing and through the middle, proving his speed is only increasing the more time spent at the elite level.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFL\/status\/1763455638426824823<\/a><\/p>\n

But when asked what position he'll play this season and if he'll take on a bigger middle role now that Cam Guthrie is sidelined for up to 10 weeks with a quad injury<\/a>, Holmes remained coy.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Not really sure at the moment. We're continually learning stuff in the pre-season and fidgeting around half back. It paid off today, but we'll have to change things here and there," Holmes said.<\/p>\n

Despite not knowing his exact role for the upcoming season, Holmes says he's happy to play anywhere.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I'm trying to get the coaches to fight for me, the line coaches," he joked.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Holmes\"<\/p>\n

Geelong assistant coach Steven King heaped praise on the 21-year-old, who sadly missed out on the Cats' 2022 flag after suffering a hamstring injury on grand final eve.<\/p>\n

"Max is a really powerful athlete," Cats assistant coach and 2007 premiership player Steven King said post match.<\/p>\n

"He gives us a lot around the ball and with the way the modern game's played now I think a lot of his attributes are suited to half-back.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/GeelongCats\/status\/1763499488210293002<\/a><\/p>\n

"You would've seen him tonight spend a lot of time around the ball as well.<\/p>\n

"We feel like we've got a mature group with some great young guys coming up who can play in multiple positions and Max is one of those."<\/p>\n

For Essendon, they may have a much more serious injury concern on their hands, with star defender Jordan Ridley going down with a suspected quad issue.<\/p>\n

It comes just days after Ridley extended his contract until the 2029 season.<\/p>\n

Geelong will host St Kilda in round one on Saturday, March 16 as the Cats unveil their new Selwood Stand, named after four-time premiership star Joel Selwood<\/a>, increasing the capacity of GMHBA stadium to just over 40,000.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geelong young speedster Max Holmes shut down injury concerns with a stellar performance against Essendon on Friday night. The Cats defeated the Bombers by 12 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372011,"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\/372009"}],"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=372009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372013,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372009\/revisions\/372013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/372011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}