GEELONG defender Josh Hunt was taken to hospital early yesterday morning but the club is confident he and other teammates who sustained minor injuries will be available to play in Saturday's grand final.
Hunt was taken to Geelong hospital because of dehydration, having vomited during and after the match, but football operations manager Neil Balme said he would be available.
"He had been vomiting overnight and was a bit dehydrated through it," Balme said yesterday. "They were just a bit concerned so they whizzed him into Geelong hospital, but he'll be fine. He certainly won't miss because of this."
Balme said the club was confident of Cameron Mooney (back), Steve Johnson (shoulder) and Darren Milburn (corked calf) playing, but he could not guarantee their presence as each finished the game under duress. "Those guys are no absolute certainties because they are a bit sore but we wouldn't expect it to be a problem."
Collingwood's constant pressure in the thrilling five-point victory left the Cats tired and sore, according to Mooney.
"We will obviously just have a big week of recovery. I think a few of the boys did pull up pretty sore but we'll just recover well this week and see how we go," Mooney said at Port Melbourne beach yesterday.
"Collingwood just kept coming at us all night, didn't they? We thought we were going to run over the top of them there in the start of the fourth quarter but they just wouldn't let us do it."
Many Geelong players were below their normal output on Friday night and he said coach Mark Thompson was disappointed in the performance, stressing that the club had "unfinished business."
Mooney is the only member of the Cats team to have played in a grand final and he is hoping to redeem himself after he failed to collect a possession for the Kangaroos in the 1999 premiership.
"It is not something I was really proud of. Obviously I was only 19 and very young and naive and a bit silly and didn't quite know what to expect or what it was all about. But I have waited eight years to get another crack at it and so I am looking forward to it. I felt like I didn't deserve it (in 1999), but this one I feel like I have worked hard and I deserve to be in there with the boys."
Thompson said "three or four" players in the VFL could press for selection. "We have to look at who is a chance of not playing (last night) and then adjust our squad for Sunday. They play Sunday and then it's a six-day turnaround — we may pull some players out of that team. Steven King will play and he might be one who has restricted time."
The other selection poser is All-Australian defender Matthew Egan. Egan is confident he can be fit in time, but Thompson remains unconvinced. "At the moment, he's not a chance, he's got to run again and he's probably got to run a bit faster and change direction and kick — so I couldn't tell you," he said.
Mooney described the grand final as "the most important thing in my footy career."
He said the close game against Collingwood was a "wake-up call" and said the intense pressure and huge crowd was good experience for the team.
"Probably the weekend off wasn't a great thing for us in the end. I think it probably stopped out momentum. But it was a good wake-up call to say that you just can't rest on your laurels. It probably will be a nice little kick up the bum for us."
