Geelong’s Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie set for VFL return ahead of AFL finals

Geelong coach Chris Scott is not going to let himself be swayed by the “quality of those names” potentially returning to his magnet board as champion goalkicker Tom Hawkins and midfielder Cam Guthrie ramp up their bid to be part of the premiership push.

Hawkins, who will retire when this season ends, is working through a foot injury and both he and premiership winner Guthrie (achilles) are set to return to action from long injury lay-offs in Geelong’s reserve team’s knockout VFL semi-final against Southport this weekend.

That means they won’t be available for Thursday night’s qualifying final against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval and Scott was not inclined to make their inclusions automatic for his team’s second final if they star duo got through their return hitout.

The Cats will get a week off ahead of an MCG preliminary final should they beat Port but will be thrust into a sudden-death showdown with a loss.

While he’s happy to factor both Hawkins and Guthrie in, Scott said expectations should be tempered and just because of who they were didn’t make them a “lay down misere” to get back into the senior team.

“When guys haven’t played for a long period of time … I think it’s unreasonable to put high expectations on their performance when they come back,” Scott said.

“Clearly, it’s better if they play well, but more importantly it’s how they move and how they get through and how they stand up in that game.

“It’s far from a lay down misere that if those guys get through that we would play them in an AFL game the next week. We don’t even know our fixture yet.

“But what will become important after that will be how well they train as well.

“We’re optimistic and we’re positive and we’re leaving it on the table, but we’re not in the position where we can get sidetracked by the quality of those names up on the magnet board.”

Hawkins, 36, has been sidelined by his foot injury for more than two months, while Guthrie has only played 10 games since the 2022 premiership win and only four this season due to his ongoing injury issues.

That recent history is enough for Scott to be wary about picking them.

“Clearly, their best has been important to us and they’ve been two of our best players over a long period of time, but we’ve got to deal in the reality of the current situation,” he said.

“There’s just too many unknowns to be really specific about the likely outcome there.”

But while there are clouds over Hawkins and Guthrie, big man Sam De Koning will return from a knee injury against Port Adelaide having played in the VFL last weekend.

Scott also dismissed concerns over Tom Stewart (hamstring tightness) and Lawson Humphries (calf tightness) who both sat out the second half of the round-24 win over West Coast but will be available to play against Port Adelaide.