Geelong forward Nathan Djerrkura is on the verge of making his long-awaited return to the football field after three months sidelined with a persistent quad injury.
Geelong VFL coach Leigh Tudor last night confirmed Djerrkura was a near-certain starter for the Cats’ VFL clash with Collingwood at MC Labour Park on Sunday afternoon.
Tudor said Djerrkura, who is yet to play this year, had finally overcome the debilitating quad injuries that had kept him sidelined since the initial practice matches in February.
The 19-year-old must get through tomorrow morning’s final training session unscathed to confirm his place in a VFL squad that is set be dominated by up to 19 AFL-listed players.
The injury was Djerrkura’s third major quad injury since arriving at the club at the end of 2006 after being snapped up with pick 26 in the 2006 national draft.
Tudor said he hoped this would signal the end of Djerrkura’s luckless induction into league football, paving the way for him to finally mount his case for a senior berth.
“It would be great for him to get back in with all the boys, it’s a pretty lonely time when you have a long term injury,” Tudor said.
“It would be great for him to get back with the main group and getting in amongst it and learning his footy and working on his footy.
“If he plays this week, I really hope he gets through the game, so he can show the footy world what he’s all about.”
Geelong could go into the match depleted of height down back against a Collingwood line up boasting a number of tall key forwards.
But with a side comprising Jason Davenport, Travis Varcoe and Kane Tenace, Tudor said the Cats would be out to beat the Pies at ground level.
“Most definitely,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of quick guys in the side and we would expect them to use their strengths, which is their pace.
“Obviously we want to teach our boys to win their own ball, but obviously use your pace if you’ve got pace and use your marking ability if that’s a strength.
“So we’ll be all over them this week and hopefully the guys play well.”
Geelong struck its best form two weeks ago when it overwhelmed premiership favourite Williamstown at Skilled Stadium, before enjoying a week off last week as part of the VFL split round.
Tudor said his players embraced the week off last week after a draining early workload of 10 straight matches since February.
With nine players experiencing their first year on an AFL list, he said the break came at an ideal time to reinvigorate the players for the challenging month ahead against four top eight contenders.
“I think it’s a good thing, we’ve got a young group, they’ve played a lot of footy already, they’ve had a lot of work in their first preseason,” he said.
“They came back on Monday morning and really got back into it again, you could see they had a bit of bounce in them, so I think it was really good for them.”
Collingwood sits outside the top eight on percentage and Tudor is expecting a match similar to the entertaining contest battled out in the final practice match of the season in March.
“They’ve got a really good side, they’ll have a lot of AFL-listed players, and so will we,” he said.
“Last time we played Collingwood it was a really fantastic game and I expect it to be the same again.
“It will be a really good game to watch, there will be a lot of hard running and there will be a lot of one-on-one contests, so it will be a really good game of footy I think.”
