Rugged Geelong defender Max Rooke yesterday emerged unscathed from his comeback match with Geelong’s VFL side in Bendigo.

Rooke, who returned from two months out with a severe hamstring tear, played three quarters in the Cats’ hard-fought 13-point victory over the Bendigo Bombers and moved without restriction.

The 25-year-old gathered 16 disposals rotating through the wing and across halfback.

“Yeah it was great to be back out there, huge relief to get through the game,” Rooke said.

“I was bit rusty early on, but I felt like I started to get back into it as the game went on.

“I’m just rapt to be off the injury list now, to get through today, I think it’s been eight weeks I’ve been out.

“I’m just looking to staying off it for the rest of the year and playing out the rest of the schedule and looking forward to the post (home and away) season playoffs.”

Rooke said he felt no discomfort in the hamstring that underwent radical medical treatment in Germany last month.

“It felt great, I didn’t feel it at all, at one stage I thought I was a little bit tight, but the hamstring itself was perfect,” he said.

“Definitely (gives him confidence). Early on I was pretty nervous, but as the game went on I tended to forget about it when the pressure was on, as soon as you don’t think about it, it was fine.”

Coach Leigh Tudor was impressed with Rooke’s performance and said his comeback went exactly as planned.

“All he needed to do was get through the game and he did that, played quite a bit of game time, so it was a really good result,” he said.

Tough young midfielder Brent Prismall, who returned to the side for the first time since round 13, kicked two goals and showed no ill effect of the broken wrist that sidelined him for seven weeks.

“Yeah he was good, he got through the game the same as Rookie, no expectation on them to blitz it at all, just got through the game and did what he had to,” Tudor said.

Former captain Steven King imposed himself in the ruck and was one of the side’s best players, as he shouldered a majority of the ruck in an impressive performance.

“Kingy played well, he won a lot of the ball, and he got into some dangerous spots and he also went down back and took some strong marks at crucial times of the game for us, so I’m happy,” Tudor said.

Tim Callan was a standout for the Cats across halfback, while Charlie Gardiner kicked four goals and presented tirelessly all day.

The Cats dominated early play and broke out to a four-goal lead in the first quarter, despite squandering many opportunities in front of goal.

The Bombers worked their way back into the contest in the second quarter on the back of some gut running and making the most of their opportunities.

The lead changed hands several times in the final quarter, before Drew Barnes and James Byrne kicked the last two goals of the match to give the Cats the win.

“They really fought the game out and missed a lot of opportunities in the first quarter when we could have broken away, but we just missed the goals that we should have kicked, but to have a hard-fought win like that one game out from the finals was a good result with 10 VFL players in the side,” Tudor said.

“We seemed to be winning the hitouts, but not taking advantage of Kingy’s work and when we went forward, we bombed the ball forward a bit and didn’t use the free man when they were dropping numbers back, so once we worked that out we started playing a lot better.

Geelong faces Coburg next Sunday afternoon at TEAC Oval in Port Melbourne in a Qualifying Final.