Assistant coach James Rahilly had mixed feelings after Geelong's narrow JLT Community Series loss to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon.

"We looked to implement a few things and worked pretty well in the first half," Rahilly said.

"Our third quarter was pretty disappointing, but we got a bit out of it."

The Cats tried a couple of different tactics, including throwing key defender Harry Taylor into attack.

"We're still going to experiment a bit, a little bit of back and a little bit of forward," Rahilly said.

"Probably majority of the time will be forward.

"He needs to keep working on the craft and working together."

Forgotten midfielder George Horlin-Smith found plenty of the ball to put himself in calculations for round one.

"He's really good around the ball, he's quite strong, he's been working on his stoppage craft all pre-season and I thought he had a good game, he was amongst it," Rahilly said.

"George is definitely a chance."

The Cats will keep an eye on forward Lincoln McCarthy after he left the ground in the second quarter with a shoulder injury.

"He hurt his shoulder, but he was only going to be play about half a game anyway," Cats assistant coach James Rahilly said.

"We'll have to have a look at it.

"Speaking to him, he thinks he's all right, but we'll wait and see."