Chris Scott on… Esava Ratugolea’s Inclusion 

Esava has been in our team virtually all year and he's been important to us and played well, so that was a pretty easy decision and good thing for us to be able to get him back in. 

Chris Scott on… Mark O’Connor the tagger?

It's always an option.

We almost never go into a game just saying ‘Let our midfield go against theirs’ so that part is easy to establish, but which one is a bit harder because they've been really dynamic and consistent with their group in there, (Connor) Rozee, (Zach) Butters, (Jason) Horne-Francis, and that's focusing in on the young guys and leaving out (Ollie) Wines and (Travis) Boak. 

Their midfield is largely responsible for their success this year so that'll be a big part of the game.

Chris Scott on… team structure without Hawkins and Blicavs

That is the intriguing puzzle for us. 

It was only brought to my attention by Jeremy (Cameron) that he's never played for the Cats without Hawkins there, which took me by surprise a little bit. He's a unique player, Tom, so we're not going to try and replace him like for like but a different structure... Even Blicavs in his role is unique in my mind as well, so those two players structurally force us to shift the way we go about it, which is exciting as well. 

We’ve got some young guys in there who have got some opportunity throughout the year that may not have if we had of been at full availability, so in the midfield without Blicavs, [I’m] looking forward to Bruhn, and Parfitt will come into the 23 as well, so I’m looking forward to those guys playing together. they're different to our big midfielders so that's exciting for us. 

And then ahead of the ball, it'll be a different look, and we're not going to forecast that just yet, but we're excited about.. we always prefer to have Hawkins in, I hope he plays until he's 40, but there is some upside to having a slightly different look in there. 

Chris Scott on… updates on Hawkins, Blicavs, Guthrie

My information is that (Hawkins’ injury) is minor and that he will certainly play before the home and away series but I'm passing on my interpretation of information, and I think I've said before, until it gets to within ten days I'm probably not the best person to ask, I'm just guessing.

The (Blicavs) one is definitely more serious. Hawkins was minor but it was a significant one for Blicavs so, he's not in my thinking for the home and away season but I'm always happy to be surprised. 

I think (Cam Guthrie) is tracking roughly toward some home and away time. The question will be, having missed so much with a foot injury, how he comes back… likely through the VFL. But I think even with that program he could play some VFL footy and still play, say, the last home and away game for example. 

Chris Scott on... Port Adelaide

I find it so hard to be accurate in your estimation of where other teams are at, so again, the psychology part: are they going to be better because they've lost three in a row and they need to feel like they need to get back into form, or is it a sign that they're off and they're going to struggle? I don't know, I can't answer those questions. 

At the margin, the really specific things like (Charlie) Dixon not playing, well ok, (Todd) Marshall and (Jeremy) Finlayson are pretty good players. I bore you probably, but I just expect the opposition to play as well as they can.