GEELONG's enviable depth is set to be showcased in the lead up to finals, with the Cats set to welcome back Lachie Henderson and possibly Josh Caddy from injury against Essendon next Sunday. 

The absence of Henderson, who missed his second straight game with concussion, mattered little as Geelong marked the milestones of Corey Enright and Jimmy Bartel with a 25-point victory over the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

Caddy, who has not played since injuring the medial ligament in his knee in round 13, and midfielder Scott Selwood are also closing in on a senior game and will both play in the VFL on Saturday.

Cats coach Chris Scott said Henderson was an automatic inclusion to a Geelong defence that restricted the high-scoring Bulldogs to 78 points at Simonds Stadium.

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"He's been clearly a best 22 player – even an All Australian-level player this year, so I wouldn't expect him to play too much in the VFL," Scott said of Henderson.

"He was close but we just erred on the side of caution, and we felt that a good solid week of training would have him in better shape than what he would have been had he played tonight."

The coach said Scott Selwood loomed as an important inclusion as the Cats sort out their best team before September.

"We're hoping to get [Selwood] in over the next couple of weeks. He's played well enough (in the VFL) to suggest he can play a role for us.

"Scott's had a really thorough rehab, and his focus and our focus has been on him playing as well as he can towards the end of the year and improving our team."

Shane Kersten, Darcy Lang, George Horlin-Smith and Jordan Murdoch are other players pressing for a recall.

The Cats now turn their attention to games against the Bombers, Richmond, the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne as they seek to lock up a spot in the top-four.

"We're on the right track and clearly we weren't on the right track as little as a few weeks ago," Scott said.

"We see some clear parts of our game that can improve and we're still fairly optimistic that if we can clean some things up we can compete with anyone.

"If we take some backwards steps we're going to be behind the eight ball and we're going to be in trouble."

WATCH Chris Scott's full media conference

Scott praised both Enright, who broke Geelong's game's record of 326 matches, and Bartel, who played his 300th game, and the coach thought his players handled the occasion appropriately.

"If anything, the challenge is to make sure your emotion level is relatively stable. There's no doubt, in our minds, that we were going to be up for the game," Scott said.

"There was a risk that we were going to try too hard and be a little bit over the top with our emotion and they (the Bulldogs) were probably in the same boat.

"It's nice to send well-loved guys off the ground in a situation like that after a win."

It would be hard to find two more genuine champions of the game. Picture: AFL Media