GEELONG spearhead Tom Hawkins has begun pre-season in good shape, with the club confident his back problems are under control.
The 25-year-old was severely restricted by a bulging disc in his back during the Cats' 2013 campaign, which ended when they suffered a five-point preliminary final defeat at the hands of Hawthorn.
But Hawkins hit the ground running when the club's senior players returned to training on Monday.
He participated in the skills exercises at the start of the session, held in sweltering conditions at Simonds Stadium, then completed a number of 200m sprints down the outer side of the ground.
"He does have an individual program, so in some respects it's a little bit different (to the other players)," Geelong coach Chris Scott said before the training session.
"But he's had no surgery. There was nothing significant that Tom needed to do.
"He's come back, after having a little bit of treatment in the off-season, absolutely, but he's come back ready to start a full program [on] day one, which is a great sign.
Scott admitted Hawkins will have to manage his back issue during the remainder of his career, but he hoped it would be largely forgotten by the time round one rolls around.
"Hopefully we're not going to talk too much about Tom's back," Scott said.
"I probably shouldn't even be talking about it now, because as of day one of the pre-season for him, he's uninjured and really unmanaged.
"It obviously affected his football, but it's not a debilitating issue. If you saw Tom in the street, you wouldn't have known.
"Everyone's really confident that he can move past it and get back to his best footy this year."
Only three players – Daniel Menzel (knee), Shane Kersten (knee) and Jackson Thurlow (hip) – didn't make it onto the track on Monday.
Champion defender Corey Enright and ruckman Dawson Simpson, who are on modified programs are suffering relatively serious knee injuries late last season, both participated in a number of the skills drills.
"We'd expect them to be training with the squad, almost unencumbered, by Christmas at least," Scott said.
"It's a little bit hard to say for sure, but we don't think that their injuries last season are going to impact on their pre-season too much."
Ruckman Hamish McIntosh, who didn't play a game at any level in 2013, is also on a modified program.
But he participated in a time-trial on Monday morning, which was won, as always, by fellow big man Mark Blicavs.
McIntosh finished near the rear of the field, but he then completed a lot of extra skills and running work later in the day.
"He's in full training. He's not injured at the moment," Scott said, before adding, "I shouldn't say 'at the moment'.
"He's healthy and he's going to stay that way."
