Veteran Cats on high alert

GEELONG is adamant it will not coddle its nine 30-yearolds through the NAB Challenge, determined to hit a testing first month of the season in peak form.

Chris Scott’s Cats have a tough start to the season with clashes against Hawthorn, Fremantle, Gold Coast, North Melbourne and Richmond.

So those veterans must be in good shape to be picked and can’t afford to ease into the year before hitting peak form.

The Cats have ruled out Nathan Vardy (knee) and Daniel Menzel (knee) from the NAB Challenge. But Steve Johnson (foot) is back in heavy training and ex-Demon Mitch Clark will be back with the main group in a fortnight after a minor calf tear.

Geelong football manager Steve Hocking said the club’s premiership veterans were on high alert about hitting the ground running.

“The start of the season we hit Hawthorn and then roll into Fremantle, Gold Coast and North, so there is your answer about our preparation,’’ Hocking said.

“We will be using all of the next two months to make sure we have the best group available for those four rounds, we have got a pretty tough draw right across the season so we will be asking a bit of that (senior) group.

“We are counting on using the next eight weeks as a pretty important training block leading up to Round 1. The NAB Challenge games will just be part of the training load.”

Johnson spent some time away from training with foot soreness, but Geelong isn’t alarmed by his preparation.

“Mitch Clark is a bit like Johnson, but more advanced. He hadn’t missed any sessions up to January and then got that nick in his calf. He is back running and in the next two weeks will be in the main group.”