“He got a whack in the ribs and obviously couldn’t go on, so that’s a pretty clear indication that he’s sore at the moment,” Hinkley said.
“He’s the toughest player in the AFL, (judged) by his peers … We’ll wait and see what happens with scans tomorrow.”
Stewart likely to miss first finals
Geelong coach Chris Scott confirmed Tom Stewart was always likely to miss the Cats’ first finals assignment with a minor hamstring concern before the star backman was confirmed as a definite late out after falling ill on Thursday.
Jeremy Cameron of the Cats celebrates a goal with teammates.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Armed with the double-chance, Geelong made a similarly conservative call to leave out fellow defender Sam De Koning (knee).
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De Koning and veteran flag-winning duo Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie will all line up for the Cats in their VFL semi-final against Southport this Saturday in Geelong.
“[Stewart] had a good couple of weeks at training and we were really optimistic that he would be right,” Scott said.
“As always, this has been our history, if you think back to big games where we’ve made conservative calls, even on really good players.
“We were still weighing that up last night, then he started to come down with the flu. By the time he woke up, he was crook enough that he wouldn’t play. Hand on heart, we were leaning towards not playing him.
“We’d made the conservative call with De Koning as well. He’ll get a game on Saturday, then we can be more sure that he’s really ready to come in and play his best.
“Our plan all along was for them (Hawkins and Guthrie) to play (VFL) this week, so we’ll push on with that.”
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