Geelong Cats hope to take best team to Perth for Freo Game


Tue 9th of March 2010


Source: Geelong Advertiser

GEELONG appears set to unveil its best available line up on Saturday when it confronts Fremantle at Freo Oval in the final practice match before round one.

The Cats are facing a race against time to be match-ready for the season-opener against Essendon after their practice match against Brisbane was abandoned on Saturday due to Melbourne's ferocious storm.

Almost a full squad completed a strong training run at St Albans Reserve yesterday, with the session concluding with 45 minutes of match practice.

Geelong assistant football manager Steve Hocking said the Cats would most likely unleash their best possible squad in Perth with an eye on the looming round one.

"We haven't had match committee yet, but I would be thinking that's possibly what the coaches would be looking at, definitely," he said.

Joel Corey remains on track for a round one comeback but Max Rooke appears likely to be sidelined slightly longer with knee tendinitis, although the club is largely unconcerned long-term.

Rooke yesterday continued his individual program away from the main squad, joining a rehab group at St Mary's for a non-competitive session of repeat leading and skills.

Hocking said while missing Saturday's match was not ideal, it was unlikely to have any lingering affect on the Cats' preparations for a premiership defence.

The only thing the Cats would have taken from a slog-fest in hail and rain would have been a battered squad of heavy legs and corkies.

"We didn't play, so you change your training load and some of the drills you're going to do this week's workload looks different to what it would have been if we played," he said.

"Only time will tell (if no game will be a setback), we don't think so, we've had a really good session today."

The Cats will now complete the majority of their pre-season training at St Albans Reserve until Skilled Stadium is ready for use next month.

St Albans Reserve is larger than Elderslie Reserve and provides the Cats with a greater ability to test and refine their free-flowing game plan.

In a nomadic preseason, the Cats have trained at a variety of venues and completed weights training in a shed adjoining temporary offices in the Skilled Stadium car park.

"We've been waiting for cricket to finish (on St Albans Reserve)," Hocking said.

"(The players') running patterns are extended much further on this ground. We've got the MCG in the first two games of the year, Subiaco in round three, then back on Skilled in round four.

"We needed to get onto a ground of this size.

"No (it won't have an on-field impact), the guys have done all the work required, they've done all the running."

The Cats are waiting for permission from the AFL to play an intra-club match on the scheduled free weekend of March 20.