Geelong's 2026 season is slipping away after its fifth loss in six games and a slew of injuries to star Jeremy Cameron, Tanner Bruhn and Jack Henry.
The Cats forfeited a 39-point lead against GWS on Saturday, although it can be understood given Geelong was ravaged on the injury front.
Cameron, who was playing well off half back in a major positional shift, suffered a suspected broken collarbone and spent the night in hospital. Bruhn pulled up sore from a contest and likewise spent the night in the hospital with a neck issue.
Utility Henry copped a knock to the throat and also stayed the night in Sydney, while Mark O'Connor was a late out with a tight quad and 36-year-old Patrick Dangerfield was battered and bruised by the end of the contest.
Speaking in the post-game press conference, Geelong coach Chris Scott said it was important to keep a level head when injuries mount up.
"You can catastrophise things, and I don't think we should," Scott said.
"I think we should just wait and see what the diagnosis is.
"(Cameron's) pretty sore, so I am not sure the extent of it.
"They will all be staying in Sydney tonight. I don't pressure our medical team to keep me in the loop in an acute fashion anyway. That will play itself out over time.
"It made it difficult, but it's just the swings and roundabouts of our game."
Fortunately for the Cats, the club does have ready-made players in the VFL who will likely get a call-up while in strong form.
Midfielder Gryan Miers, who is playing through an injured ACL, was prolific on Saturday against Richmond VFL, collecting 24 disposals and kicking three goals.
Off-season recruit James Worpel was equally damaging with a goal, 12 clearances and seven tackles from his 33 disposals.
Untried mid-sized forward Jay Polkinghorne is a good chance to make his debut after booting 5.3. Making it 16 goals from his last four matches.
With Geelong sitting awkwardly in eighth on the ladder, teetering in a wildcard spot, Scott said he was confident his side had the cattle to finish the season strong and make a tilt in finals.
"We don't know what we are dealing with (injury-wise), but we are confident in our depth," he said.
"Our VFL team had another very good win today, and we have had guys performing well there for a long period of time. We certainly have guys to come in.
"I think (Miers will return). But it's really not my call, so I back the medical staff and the high-performance staff to feed back their opinion and work on it from there."
O'Connor was a late out for the clash against the Giants and was replaced by Mitch Knevitt.
Scott said the Irishman won't be missed for long.
"(O'Connor) had a tight quad that they were optimistic would come good, but we wanted to leave it as late as we could to give him every chance, and he wasn't quite good enough," he said.
"The feedback there was quite clear; they are very confident he will be fine for next week. So that's a good sign."
Scott also clarified that despite the Cats having a five-day break to next Thursday night's clash with St Kilda, he expected skipper Dangerfield to be available to play.
