GEELONG skipper Joel Selwood is shaping up well to play in Thursday's round-one clash with Adelaide despite a hamstring concern, but he's not over the line yet.
Selwood has played only one quarter of football in Geelong's three-match series of pre-season commitments, but Geelong coach Chris Scott insists the triple-premiership star has built a strong fitness base over the summer.
"The short's answer's yes, at the moment (he'll play)," Scott said on Sunday.
"We've got supreme confidence that he'll play.
"There's a few training sessions to go so things can change.
"He's trained fully a couple of times. We're very confident he'll be close to his best."
Selwood broke down in the first quarter of Geelong's pre-season game against Melbourne in Alice Springs on February 28.
The Cats have been hit hard by injuries and Scott says the club's younger brigade needs to prove itself in the absence of top-liners such as Allen Christensen and Steven Motlop.
Christensen (back) is due to play in mid-season, Motlop (knee) is about a month away and ruck/forward Nathan Vardy is out for the year with a knee injury.
Billie Smedts (leg-bone bruising) and George Burbury (jaw) are also on the injured list.
"Some of the players we've lost are irreplaceable," Scott said.
"We've got some young players, some inexperienced players who will play a lot of footy this year.
"We don't expect them to play as well as Steven Motlop, Allen Christensen and Nathan Vardy for example, but they're going to come in and do a job."
Small forward Lincoln McCarthy, who's played one game in two seasons, is likely to get his chance against Adelaide.
Scott said ruckmen Dawson Simpson and Hamish McIntosh, the ex-Kangaroo who missed all of last season with injury, had made strong claims for selection in Thursday night's game at Simonds Stadium.
"We've seen them together in combination through the pre-season and we've liked what we've seen," Scott said.
"Then you throw Mark Blicavs into the mix. We feel we could effectively take three ruckmen into the game with one of them (Blicavs) being our best runner."
Scott said the Cats would put their best defender on Adelaide recruit and Geelong's 2011 premiership key forward James Podsiadly.
"We know exactly what he can do," Scott said.
