AFTER taking on Port Adelaide's Charlie Dixon, Gold Coast's Tom Lynch and Melbourne's Jesse Hogan – Geelong's Mark Blicavs has Lance Franklin in his sights.  

Blicavs has been moved back in a makeshift defence in recent weeks and teammate Patrick Dangerfield believes the utility is ready for another challenge this Saturday.  

"He's strutting around like he's better than Matthew Scarlett at the moment so he's really happy with his game," Dangerfield joked on Monday.  

"I think Mark will think he's the right match-up.

"Obviously whenever 'Buddy's' (Franklin) up and rolling he's a very difficult player to stop so we've got to make sure we've got some plans in place for him." 

As key defender Harry Taylor went down with a plantar fascia injury in round one against Melbourne – an injury he's still battling – Blicavs was moved back to play on Hogan.  

Blicavs was trialled in defence in the pre-season, playing on Lynch in Townsville as Geelong was forced to look for new options with Lachie Henderson unavailable with a knee injury.

Blicavs kept St Kilda's Paddy McCartin to one goal in round four, while he was opposed to Dixon for large parts of last weekend's win, with the Power big man held goalless.  

Meanwhile, second-year defender Zach Guthrie will be in line for a recall after travelling to Adelaide as an emergency with Sydney's strong presence of small forwards.  

Vice-captain Patrick Dangerfield could captain his first game for Geelong, depending on the outcome of skipper Joel Selwood's likely appeal of his one-match ban for striking Lindsay Thomas.