‘The bye will do him good’: sore Cat ace set for a rest

Justin Chadwick | June 19, 2026

Geelong coach Chris Scott is adamant Jeremy Cameron’s surgically-repaired arm is not a serious issue despite the star forward pulling up lame several times during the nine-point loss to Fremantle.

Cameron underwent surgery after breaking his right arm in last year’s grand final loss to Brisbane, and he’s still suffering some nerve issues from that injury.

The 33-year-old looked to have hurt the same arm again when he was tackled by Fremantle ruckman Mason Cox in the third term of Thursday night’s blockbuster in Perth.

And Cameron was again left in pain and looking to protect his arm when he copped a hit from Pat Voss later in that same quarter.

Cameron, who finished with two goals from six disposals, has also been dealing with a “grumbly” hip issue, but Scott says the veteran’s arm is okay.

Geelong will regain Tom Stewart (concussion) and Smith (illness) when they return from their bye to take on Brisbane on July 2, and Scott hopes the break will also help Cameron freshen up.

“I think the bye will come at a good time for him in a general sense,” Scott said.

“The feedback that we’ve got around him is that he’s had this sort of arm injury and we have a very conservative approach with these things.

“If that was really restricting him, or there was any potential for further damage, we wouldn’t be playing him. 

“And even Bailey (Smith) is a good example of that. Like he was sick. We could we have pushed it right to the end maybe, but we’re just not in the business of pushing guys to play, especially when it might put them in a hole for a week or two afterwards.”

The Cats pushed Fremantle all the way in Perth, opening up a 28-point lead midway through the second quarter before the Dockers finally found their range in front of goal.

The 14.15 (99) to 14.6 (90) defeat leaves Geelong with a 9-6 record, but Scott was feeling relatively optimistic following the loss to Fremantle, who have now won 13-straight games.

“I don’t think we come away from the game devastated at where we’re at,” Scott said. 

“We had the chance to win the game. We thought we gave ourselves enough chances to really put them under pressure, and just couldn’t get it done in the end. 

“But if you take a step back, which we’ll get a chance to do with the bye coming up, I suspect our takeaway will be we feel like we’re in a spot where we can have a crack at it.

“We came away at least with our confidence in our game intact.”