McIntosh closes in on AFL return

Geelong ruckman Hamish McIntosh at training. Source: News Limited

GEELONG is excited but cautious about the prospect of injury-plagued ruckman Hamish McIntosh making his long-awaited return to football.

Cats coach Chris Scott on Thursday confirmed the former North Melbourne big man would be a definite starter in NAB pre-season matches, with the club hopeful he would pull on the hoops for the first time in the Round 1 clash against Adelaide.

Asked how the 107-game McIntosh was tracking in the pre-season, Scott replied: "I hesitate to say, but very well. Yeah ... very well.

"He's doing all the training that we're asking of him. And he's making a difference to the way we train on the track.

"He's a player that we're excited about because he's a different type of ruckman to our other guys and we're starting to see that on the training track now.

"I should speak cautiously when it comes to Hamish because he's missed a hell of a lot of footy, not only with us, but he played only eight games in two years prior to coming to us.

"Until he gets some consistency week after week and can back up from some hard games then it would be folly for us to get too excited."

Geelong Cat's Hamish McIntosh set to debut after injuries cause constant set back for the recruit over the past 12 months.

Scott forecast McIntosh would play a big part in the Cats pre-season, should he remain fit.

"He'll definitely play pre-season games," Scott said.

"We haven't finalised our pre-season program for all our players but it wouldn't surprise at all to see Hamish play the first game that's available to him."

Scott said the Cats had a "relatively healthy list", with a number of stars making steady progress from post-season surgery.

Allen Christensen and Jackson Thurlow are both "up and running" from minor hip surgery, while ruckman Dawson Simpson is training with the main group.

"He's (Simpson) back training now and looking good, which is really positive," Scott said.

"Shane Kersten injured his knee in the VFL grand final and he's making steady progress and is on track to play the first game of the season in a month or two, so we're slowly getting guys back.

"We're in a different situation to the one we were in last year where we had quite a big injury list.

"We're relatively healthy, I don't think that's a sign that we've gone softer on the players because they are working extremely hard, but we're pretty optimistic that when we start playing games we'll have something close to our best list available."

Livewire Steve Motlop completed light skills away from the main group yesterday as he recovers from patella tendinitis, which the club is carefully monitoring.

The club has put a line through Daniel Menzel until the midway-point of the main season, despite the youngsters showing encouraging signs.

Veteran Corey Enright is showing no signs of injury woes after injuring his knee at the back-end of the season, while the Cats No. 1 draft pick Darcy Lang has joined the main group and is already demonstrating why he was so highly valued but the club's recruiting staff, Scott said.

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McIntosh closes in on AFL return