Geelong Cats to bring Tom Hawkins and Cameron Guthrie back through VFL; Alex Neal-Bullen requests trade from Melbourne Demons to Adelaide Crows

“I hope so [that Bontempelli wins the Brownlow]. I feel like it is going to go down to the wire yet again, and his second half of the year was incredible. Fingers crossed. He has won literally everything else other than a Brownlow Medal.”

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Treloar said Bontempelli had been the Bulldogs’ best player in their 14 wins.

“In our wins, he was probably our best player every time. So, hopefully, there are three votes in those games,” he said.

Treloar, who began his career alongside the likes of Toby Greene and Jeremy Cameron with Greater Western Sydney before shifting to Collingwood, said Bontempelli and Magpies great Scott Pendlebury were the two best players he had played with.

“That is a hard question. I have played with Scott Pendlebury and Toby Greene, Steele Sidebottom at his best. It’s hard to split him [Bontempelli] and ‘Pendles’. He and Pendles are right on par with each other, but polar opposite players,” Treloar said.

“Obviously, Pendles is a lot slower and doesn’t have the aerial game the way ‘Bont’ does, but I’ll definitely, when I retire, and years and years from now, I’ll be able to say that I was able to play with Bont and Pendles. The scary thing for the opposition is that Bont is [28], and he is not slowing down at all, and he still has many years of dominance left. It is a privilege to be able to play with him.”

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, Collingwood star Nick Daicos and Neale are also among the Brownlow favourites this year.

Treloar, meanwhile, is confident a calf issue won’t prevent him from lining up in Friday night’s elimination final. He played with a tight calf against Greater Western Sydney in Ballarat before the pre-finals break, but scans cleared him of any major damage.

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The clever midfielder will ramp up his training this week, and expects to play in the knockout clash.

“The week has been ideal – I will train fully on Wednesday and get up and play,” he said.

“No concerns. I have been around long enough to know it’s probably been a good de-load week for me. I am not concerned at all.”

Treloar played 22 of a possible 23 games this season, claiming his maiden All-Australian jacket. The only match he has missed was against Carlton in round 18, when he was a late withdrawal during the warm-ups because of calf tightness.

No one averaged more disposals than Treloar this season, the former Giant and Magpie averaging 31.7 disposals, 11.8 contested possessions and 5.8 clearances per game, but he faces another major challenge against a damaging Hawks’ midfield.

Forward Laitham Vandermeer faces a fitness test, having been substituted out of the clash against the Giants with hamstring tightness.

Small forward Rhylee West has recovered from a broken jaw, while teammate Jason Johannisen had 18 possessions in his return from a calf injury. Athletic defender Buku Khamis is also pushing for a recall.

There has been much talk that the Bulldogs’ tall forward line of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Aaron Naughton and Sam Darcy will stretch the Hawks. Ugle-Hagan, Naughton and Darcy have clicked as a trio over the past month, but Hawks defender and emerging cult hero Josh Weddle said his team had the personnel to disrupt the Bulldogs.

“They have got three talls, we have four tall {defenders]. I think we’ll do just what we did in the Carlton game – we’ll just roll through them, get your job done when you are on them and attack when we have the footy,” Weddle said.

Weddle said the training session under lights at Punt Rd last Friday night had been beneficial for the Hawks, as they had not had a Friday night game either this year or in 2023. The Bulldogs have had 17 through this period.

“I was getting used to being under the lights as well with the footy. It was a little bit different reading it in the air. It will definitely be a different game for us,” Weddle said.

Rebounding half-back Changkuoth Jiath (calf) is pushing for a recall, having played in the VFL on Saturday. He had eight disposals in the Box Hill Hawks’ 28-point loss to Williamstown.

Two bad injury blows as Dons lose Toogood and Clarke

Hannah Hammoud

Essendon’s AFLW side will be without star forward Bonnie Toogood for six to eight weeks – the bulk of the season – after the captain suffered a ligament strain in her knee during the second quarter of Saturday’s game against Fremantle.

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Toogood collided with fellow teammate Amber Clarke, who the club says has entered into concussion protocols after she was stretchered from the field following the incident. Clarke has been cleared of any neck injury or facial fractures.

After claiming the club’s best-and-fairest award last year and being the Bombers’ leading goalkicker, the injury to Toogood’s medial collateral ligament is a significant loss for the Bombers. With just 10 rounds remaining following the weekend’s opener, she’s now expected to miss the majority of the home-and-away season.

Essendon’s head of medical services Megan Smith said Toogood would commence rehabilitation, and did have her sights on returning later in the year.

“The incident was a heavy clash between the two players, with both showing extreme commitment to the ball,” Smith said.

“While we are disappointed that Bonnie will be out for a significant part of the season, we are relieved that there is no damage to her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).”

Hawkins and Guthrie to make VFL return as Cats debate ruck dilemma

Peter Ryan
Premiership pair Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie will play in the VFL semi-final this week as they attempt to make themselves available for selection during Geelong’s finals series.

Hawkins is returning from a foot injury suffered in round 17 against Carlton, while Guthrie has not played since round 12 as he battles an Achilles tendon injury.

Geelong’s VFL qualifying final loss to Werribee on Saturday means the Cats play Southport at home in the semi-final on Saturday, two days after the AFL team’s qualifying final on Thursday night against Port Adelaide. It will be the first time since 2011 Hawkins has played in the VFL and, possibly, his last game for the Cats.

Cats coach Chris Scott said it was important the pair played to give themselves any chance of being selected later in the finals series, but it was “far from a lay-down misere that if those guys got through we would play them in an AFL game the next week”.

Hawkins was below his best before he was injured, and the Cats have won seven of their past nine matches since he was sidelined, with Shannon Neale an impressive replacement alongside Jeremy Cameron in the forward line.

The champion forward announced in August this would be his final season in the blue and white hoops. Guthrie has played just 10 AFL games since winning the club best and fairest award in their premiership year of 2022.

“We are not in the position where we can get sidetracked by the quality of those names up on the magnet board,” Scott said. “Clearly, they have been two of our best players over a long period of time, [but] we have got to deal in the reality of the current situation.”

Scott said Lawson Humphries (calf) and Tom Stewart (hamstring) would play but was coy on Sam De Koning’s role. De Koning played in the ruck against Werribee on Saturday as he returned from the knee injury that forced him to miss the past three games. Scott said there was no guarantee, however, the premiership defender would ruck against Port Adelaide.

He said the decision on who would ruck was up for debate, with premiership ruckman Rhys Stanley, who has played the past four matches, the other candidate.

Stanley was subbed out at half-time the last time the Cats played Port, but Scott was emphatic after that match that the decision was related to the need for his team to try something radical to change the game’s direction rather than because he thought Stanley played badly.

The Power and Cats kick off the finals series on Thursday night at the Adelaide Oval. Ahead of that game, the AFL on Monday announced West Coast great Josh Kennedy would chaperone the premiership cup across the country for the next month as the official cup ambassador.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon also announced Steve Johnson would present this year’s Norm Smith Medal, alongside another former Cat, 1963 premiership captain Fred Wooller, who will anoint the captain of the premiership-winning team with the inaugural Ron Barassi Medal.

Josh Kennedy, who won a flag in 2018 with West Coast after famously being involved in a trade for Chris Judd, will be the premiership cup ambassador and will deliver the cup to the MCG on grand final day.

Hall of famer and four-time premiership coach David Parkin will present the Jock McHale Medal to the winning coach.

Premiership Demon Neal-Bullen wants to join the Crows

Peter Ryan
Melbourne utility Alex Neal-Bullen has nominated Adelaide as the club he would like to be traded to after choosing to return to South Australia for family reasons.

The 28-year-old premiership Demon played in the final two matches after The Age revealed that he had told the club he wanted to be traded. Senior coach Simon Goodwin has said the Demons would be happy to help Neal-Bullen facilitate a trade, given his circumstances and the contribution he had made to the club.

The Crows released a statement confirming Neal-Bullen wanted to join them, saying they would work to finalise a deal in this year’s trade period.

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