Jake at fever pitch regain place

AFRUSTRATING start to 2017 is now disappearing in the rear vision mirror for Geelong defender Jake Kolodjashnij.

After establishing himself with a career-high 20 games, including the preliminary final loss to Sydney last season, Kolodjashnij has battled a horrid run of sickness and injury through the summer.

But after getting through his VFL return against Werribee a fortnight ago, he is hoping for more playing time against Casey at Simonds Stadium tomorrow as he builds towards a senior return.

“It’s been a long time coming. But I’m playing games in the VFL on a distance cap at the moment,” he said. “I have had a 10km cap and that will increase to 12km this week. So I’m just excited to be back playing again.

“I’d need about two more (games in the VFL) before I am a chance to get selected. So hopefully I can put my hand up in the coming weeks.”

Kolodjashnij would have been plenty of time in Geelong’s backline.

Kolodjashnij said he was confident the young group would be able to rebound against a Casey team with a 1-1 record.

“There are a few things we need to fix up in the VFL and we have addressed that during the week to put in a good performance against Casey this weekend,” he said.

“I still need to build on the fitness. As a team there are a few things structurally that we need to work on.

“We are a young team and we need to go in, be really aggressive in the contest and focus on the structural side of things. That will hold us in good stead then.”