AFL 2024 round nine LIVE updates: Geelong Cats, Port Adelaide Power battle in Geelong

Geelong forward Tom Hawkins is not hiding away from his form struggles as he prepares to equal Joel Selwood’s record of most games in Geelong colours when he plays his 355th match for the Cats on Friday night.

The 35-year-old has become stuck in the ‘nervous 790s’ after going goalless in his past four matches, the longest goalless stretch of his career.

However, the veteran forward who is as famous for sharing goals as the 790 he has kicked, said he is not overthinking his goal drought and remains confident of emerging from the slump.

“I’m well aware that I’m not in great touch at the moment,” Hawkins said on Tuesday at GMHBA Stadium.

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Fremantle and Sydney players will pause before the first bounce and honour the life of former Docker and GWS Giants player Cam McCarthy who was found dead yesterday at age 29.

Dockers chief executive Simon Garlick expressed his club’s sadness at McCarthy’s passing and his club wanted to acknowledge their former player.

Former Fremantle and Giants player Cam McCarthy has died at the age of 29.

A WA Police statement on Friday said: “About 6.15pm yesterday, Thursday 9 May 2024, emergency services were called to an address in Lake Coogee. Upon arrival, it was confirmed a 29-year-old male was deceased.

“The death is being treated as non-suspicious.

“A report will be prepared for the coroner.”

The news has rocked the football world with McCarthy the third former Docker to die in the past six years before reaching the age of 30. His cause of death remains unclear.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon offered his condolences on behalf of the AFL, and said the league’s “deepest sympathies and thoughts are with the entire McCarthy family and Cam’s loved ones and friends, along with his former teammates from both Fremantle and GWS”.

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Neither side has made a late change. Oisin Mullin (Cats) and Francis Evans (Power) are the subs.

The emergence on Friday of fresh allegations of harassment against former North Melbourne player Tarryn Thomas has clarified what lies at the nub of this whole saga, and it is not about when and where Thomas plays AFL football again. If these latest allegations prove true, that conversation is over.

Return to play should not be a reward for good behaviour, by which we mean the minimum standard of behaviour expected of the rest of us, a civil standard that authorities civil and sporting have spent the last couple of months imploring all of us not to walk past when breached.

Playing AFL footy is a privilege Thomas once had, and was being held in reserve for him, and he has now foregone. Jimmy Bartel grew up with domestic violence and went on to win a Brownlow Medal, and on this, he is adamant. “At some stage, the privilege has got to run out,” he said on Footy Classified recently.

“Forgiveness, try again, try again, is not working. At some stage, we’ve got to go in a different direction,” Bartel said. “Throw your arms around him, support him, educate him – but you don’t have to do that at AFL level.”

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G’day everyone and welcome to our AFL live blog as Geelong takes on Port Adelaide at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong.

I’m Roy Ward and I’ll be tapping the keys for tonight’s live blog.

First bounce is set for 7.10pm AEST and we will also be keeping an eye on the later game between Fremantle and Sydney in Perth which begins at 8.30pm AEST.

Enjoy the hours to come.