Cameron Ling and Paul Chapman will both take part in their first official hit outs of the 2011 season, when they line up for the Cats against the North Ballarat Roosters in Ballarat on Saturday.

The Cats skipper has experienced an injury interrupted pre-season after tearing his hamstring in January, while the Norm Smith Medallist has been troubled by groin problems for the past month.

It will be Ling’s first appearance in a state level match - albeit a practice match - since Round 7, 2001. While for Chapman, it was the victorious 2002 VFL Grand Final Day when he last pulled on a VFL jumper.

Sixteen AFL listed and rookie players including new recruits Jordan Schroder, George Horlin-Smith and Ryan Bathie will take part in the final VFL practice match before the season proper kicks off next week.

High profile VFL listed recruits Troy Selwood and Jaxson Barham join six other VFL listed players in the 24 man squad to take on the reigning premiers at Eureka Stadium.

Due to the re-scheduling of the reserves practice match, the match has been brought forward to a starting time of 12.00pm.

B:, Jordan Schroder, Tom Gillies, Ryan Bathie
HB, George Horlin-Smith, Andrew McLean, Troy Selwood
C: Allen Christensen, Simon Hogan, Joshua Cowan
HF: Jonathan Simpkin, Mitchell Brown, Ben Johnson
F: Nathan Vardy, Trent West, Dawson Simpson
Foll: Mark Blake, Cameron Ling, Paul Chapman
I/C: Mark Corrigan, Jackson Sheringham, Casey Tutungi, Tom Maas, Isaac Baker, Jaxson Barham