After spending 16 weeks on the sidelines with a foot injury, premiership Cat Cam Guthrie made his long awaited return through the VFL on Saturday at GMHBA Stadium.

Despite playing on limited minutes and spending most of the final quarter on the bench, Guthrie still racked up 19 disposals and seven clearances through the midfield.

The 31 year old looked a class above right from the opening bounce, pinpointing targets by foot and looking incredibly clean by hand in contested situations.

Guthrie said he was stoked to be back playing footy after a frustrating battle with injury.

“It has been a long road and I’ve been a little frustrated watching at times, but I also enjoyed the process of making myself useful in other ways,” Guthrie told Cats Media.

“It’s nice to be back doing what I’m meant to be doing and hopefully I can carry that on.  

00:59

Cats Embrace Innovation at BioCats

Patrick Dangerfield and Kate Darby joined students at GMHBA Stadium for a special session of BioCATS, diving into the 2023 National Science Week theme of 'Innovation: Powering Future Industries'. Presented by Bisinella

There is still some business to be taken care of on the AFL side of things.

I’m feeling really good, pulled up well. It’s been a bit of a process to get to this point, but it’s nice to be out there and good to take home the win too, hopefully I did my part.”

The tough onballer helped steer the Cats to an impressive victory in their final game of the season, defeating the GWS Giants by 14 points on Saturday afternoon.

With Guthrie in the middle, the Cats won both the clearance and contested possession battle to help close out their season on a high.

The premiership Cat said that it was exciting to play alongside a number of impressive young talents, who are developing as the next generation for Geelong.

“Plenty of our young guys showed really good signs today,” Guthrie said.

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Ladder Foundation Visit

9 young people and 3 staff from the Ladder Foundation visited the playing group this week. Where they got to watch training and take a tour of GMHBA stadium and finishing with a presentation from a Geelong Player.

“There’s a handful that I had seen at training, but hadn’t played any footy with. That’s where our improvement as an AFL team is going to come from in future years.

"I definitely enjoyed it and I’m sure the fans have over this entire year.

"Harry (Mark Corrigan) does a great job leading the VFL program alongside plenty of great coaches behind the scenes.

"It was my first opportunity to play with a lot of our young AFL listed guys, which I really enjoyed.

"It was great to be part of the process and get the win, everyone is really happy and it was a great way to round out the season.”