GEELONG will reward the good form and patience of young midfielder George Horlin-Smith by selecting him for Saturday's clash at the MCG against Collingwood.

Cats coach Chris Scott confirmed on Thursday that the 23-year-old would play after he was the first emergency against Adelaide, travelling with the team and not playing in the VFL.

Horlin-Smith had been among the Cats' best players in the VFL in the four weeks leading into last week and will play his 40th senior game on Saturday. 

"It's become too hard to keep George back in the VFL with his performances," Scott said.

"Obviously the senior team has been performing well but George is someone we hold in very high regard and it's not necessarily by design that he hasn't played AFL footy this year. We clearly think he is good enough." 

Scott did not give any indication as to who might make way for Horlin-Smith, but Geelong has not been afraid to rest experienced players throughout the season.

The Cats remain hopeful full-back Tom Lonergan will be available for selection after only playing two minutes of Friday night's game before being concussed and sitting on the sidelines, however he remains in some doubt.

"We're optimistic that he will. We always leave it until the last minute with head knocks," Scott said.

"While we're confident, we just can't guarantee it."

Scott agreed Collingwood's tall American forward Mason Cox was a unique opponent with both his height and ability to move so well.

"Our concern is stopping him marking the ball," Scott said.

Geelong has lost four of its past six encounters with Collingwood and Scott said the Cats held them in high regard.

"Pre-season we expected them to be pretty good [and] I think they did too, so our job is to make sure that even though the momentum might have turned for them a little bit that we try to take away their game as best we can," he said.

"We expect them to play that style of footy, to play fast, to pressure really well, and if you listen to the talk coming out of Collingwood their brand is pressure on the ball so we would expect it to be pretty intense in there."

The Cats were preparing for the game with their first training session at their new $8.4 million alternative training centre at Deakin University's Elite Sports Precinct. 

With the training ground the same dimensions as the MCG, the Cats think it will improve their capacity to prepare for games at the venue.

"To have a venue exactly the same size as the MCG literally on our doorstep is just fantastic," Scott said.

Alongside the oval, the Elite Sports Precinct also features a synthetic FIFA-grade soccer pitch, international-standard eight-lane 400m athletics track, outdoor basketball and netball courts, a new baseball diamond and sprint training tacks near an open-air teaching hub.

The Cats already have seven full-time football department staff members who have emerged from the club's Deakin traineeship program and expect to conduct high-level research projects to assist its understanding of load management and the benefits of heat and altitude training.

"It's really high-level stuff," Scott said.