FOURTH-YEAR defender Jackson Thurlow has returned to the Cattery with arms like The Incredible Hulk after a big off-season in the gym.

The 21-year-old Tasmanian has been hard at it on the training track with the other young players over the past two weeks, and his noticeably bigger upper body has quite the talking point.

“Being a light frame, I had struggled to put weight on,” Thurlow told geelongcats.com.au.

“But I had a bit of a focus with the strength guys over the off-season to try and put some weight on and keep doing that throughout the pre-season.”

Thurlow wasn’t just confined to the gym during the off-season.

He spent 20 days in the Queensland coastal town Noosa, a period that included plenty of relaxing and an appearance in the Noosa Triathlon.

But he’s happy to be back at the club and is keen to have a big pre-season as the Cats works towards climbing back up the ladder in 2016.

“We’re changing a few things in terms of the way we’re moving the footy,” Thurlow said.

“We want to be really precise by hand and foot, which I think we went away from [in 2015].

“So there’s a big skill focus in this early part.”