Cam’s Hawks hope

GEELONG utility Cameron Guthrie says he will “probably put my hand up” for the Cats’ Easter Monday clash against Hawthorn after getting through the VFL unscathed yesterday.

Guthrie collected 25 touches in the one-point loss playing through the midfield, but took a while to match the intensity of the Northern Blues midfielders. The 26-year-old said he hoped he could put a calf injury behind him.

“It’s a bit of a long pre-season for the players and for myself to play both practice matches and then in the weeks between the last practice game and Round 1 to have a bit of an injury hiccup was disappointing,” he said.

“It was kind of tightness that wouldn’t go away and I’ve done a few calves before so we were probably just a little bit more cautious than if it was someone who had no injury history.

“But hopefully I can play some good footy from now and contribute at both VFL and AFL level.”

Guthrie effectively played four quarters, set no key performance indicators but to “hunt the footy”.

“(The instructions were) probably just go out there and play a little bit, which is always nice,” he said.

“Shane O’Bree gave me licence to go out and hunt the footy, which was great.

“I’ve probably lost a little bit (of fitness) but I’m not too concerned about that. I’ve been cross-training and all that kind of thing, maintaining (fitness).”

Whether Guthrie would walk straight into an in-form Geelong team, however, is yet to be seen.

“I’ll probably put my hand up but there’s a lot of decisionmaking that goes into it, so we’ll see,” he said. “I played a lot of midfield today and I probably trained the majority of pre-season in the midfield, so possibly there (is my best position) but who knows. A good player is a versatile player so I’ll try and fit in the best I can.”