ASSISTANT coach Matthew Scarlett won’t be letting the recently retired Harry Taylor disappear completely from Cats locker room in 2021.
Geelong’s notoriously tight knit defensive group will be calling upon Taylor to make guest meeting appearances via video call to stay in touch with the long-time key defensive pillar.
Scarlett admits there’s a strange feeling as the club moves into its first season since 2007 without the two-time premiership Cat.
“It’s very, very weird, I texted him the day before I came to training on the first day and spoke about how it’s going to be very different without him,” Scarlett says.
“Obviously he’s such a big figure, not just with his footy but off-field he’s one of the best blokes you’ll ever meet and he really drove our culture.
“We’re really going to miss not having H, but hopefully we’ll be able to ring him and get him on the Facetime to run a few meetings, I’ve already teed that up.”
The Cats may take a team approach to replacing the significant void left by the two-time All Australian with numerous key defensive options available to Scarlett.
“The obvious one is Blitz, he might spend a bit more time down back,” Scarlett says.
“Obviously we’ve got Hendo and Kola and Jack Henry so we’ve got a lot of players who can play tall.
“We’ve spoken about Kreuger as well, he’s going to give himself a chance to develop and push himself up for a spot.
“In that area I think we’ve got a lot of depth but Harry was enormous, pretty much his whole career at taking out the opposition’s best forward which was a real strength of ours, so we might share that responsibility.”
