With just over three weeks until Geelong’s first official match simulation against Hawthorn at GMHBA Stadium, Geelong General Manager of Football Simon Lloyd says the club has good numbers on the track as the football program focus switches from fitness to football in preparation for their first official hit out ahead of the upcoming 2023 AFL season.

“We've had huge volume through January, so a lot of loading goes into the players, but come Feb, it's all about football,” he told geelongcats.com.au on Friday.

“We're currently going through match play as most other clubs are doing at the moment and we're doing high numbers, close to 12-14 kilometres through match play, and that will build over the coming weeks as we get closer to our first practice match.”

Lloyd said players like Tom Hawkins, Jed Bews, and Sam Menegola are all making strong progress after off-season surgeries.

“Our numbers are good out on the track and we're happy with that, but obviously it's been well documented that Tom Hawkins had foot surgery, but it's really positive,” he said.

“Tom's now running and running well and the big fella is in a really positive frame of mind. He's just so important to our group, so his loads will progress over the coming weeks.”

According to Lloyd, both Menegola and Bews haven’t missed a beat since returning to the track. 

“Sam Menegola and Jed Bews had operations in the offseason as well, Sam a knee and Jed, his shoulder, and both of those guys are in full training now. We had match play last night and both had big influences on the game. 

“It was great to see Sam because he'd been out a while, running around and collecting a lot of the football and moving really freely.”

Lloyd also provided an update on developing ruckman Toby Conway who is recovering from a foot injury. 

“Toby Conway, unfortunately, suffered a navicular stress fracture last month”, he said

“Toby’s progressing well and is super positive, and he's slowly starting to put some load back onto that foot. He’s a long-term project for us, he's really important for our future, and Toby knows that.

"His focus will be on strength-based training and he will work really closely on his ruck craft with Josh Jenkins and Brad Ottens.”

Shannon Neale also suffered what appears to be an ankle sprain at training on Thursday night and will undergo scans on Friday.  

“Shannon Neale suffered a lateral ankle sprain last night in a marking contest out on the wing,” Lloyd explained. 

“He's great, Shannon, he really throws his body into things and at first we were concerned that it may be a knee but reports last night were pretty positive that it is a sprain, but we need to do all the due diligence and he'll have scans throughout today to see if there's anything else we need to be concerned about.” 

Geelong will spend Monday and Tuesday in Warrnambool as part of their annual regional community camp.