THIRD-YEAR Cat Charlie Constable is continuing to focus on his transition running while growing his inside strengths as he looks to jump up the midfield pecking order.

Constable found himself outside of the Marsh Community Series squad that faced Essendon in Colac on Monday, instead lining up with the VFL side.

The inside midfielder collected 17 disposals and laid five tackles.

The young Cat told the Geelong Advertiser he was realistic about where he sits and positive about his weekend output.

“I think there are a lot of players in good form at the moment, so it is still pretty tight for spots,” Constable said.

“But it was nice to get out and play a full game. I probably played a lot more game time in the VFL, so that was good for my match fitness and I felt really good out there.

“There were a lot of positives for me personally out of it. I was really focused on hitting my handballs and I think I was able to do that most of the day.”

The outing gave Constable a chance to work on specific areas of his game.

“Specifically with my transition work I was focusing pretty hard on that too … I haven’t had the chat about Round 1, but for me it is just about trying to put my best foot forward and there are certainly no guarantees,” Constable says.

“I just have to keep working on my overall game but maybe specifically to just keep working on my release handballs and making sure I am efficient with those. I thought I had a fair few of those that were all right, so I will go back and review the match and hopefully it will be all positive.”

Midfield coach Matthew Knights is aiding Constable in his endeavours to replicate one of Knights’ former charges.  

“I was lucky enough to coach Jobe Watson who was a brilliant exponent of winning the ball and giving it to his teammates and putting them into space,” Knights said.

“I think that is the type of player Charlie is endeavouring to be, a really big contested ball winner at stoppages, but then also being able to feed the runners around him.

“He is getting better at that all the time but still has got some work to do to become even cleaner and sharper in that area.”

Knights and Constable are on the same page when it comes to the selection table.

“He is on a journey and is going to be a fine player in time, there is no doubt about that, but breaking in at times is tough when the midfield is pretty deep,” Knights says.

“It is a fair point that he didn’t play (against Essendon) and if Joel and Mitch and Cam are available it is very unlikely Charlie will be seen in Round 1 at this stage. We would like to think that could change for Charlie as the year goes on but I thought Parfitt and Narkle did their bit and probably have their noses in front for Round 1 in front of Charlie from a young players’ perspective.”