GEELONG recruit Hamish McIntosh is adamant that his body can still withstand the rigours of elite football.

The 28-year-old ruckman moved from North Melbourne to the Cats on Thursday as part of Gillette AFL Trade Period.

He has been handed a three-year contract by Geelong - he had only one year left on his contract at North - despite playing only eight games in the past two seasons.

After battling Achilles problems last year, McIntosh recently had LARS surgery to reconstruct the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

"I'm right into my rehab now," he said. "I've been getting a lot of running under my belt, a lot of hard training."

The 203cm big man will be on a restricted program when the Cats begin their pre-season in early November, but he hopes to step up to the main training group after the Christmas break.

"I'll definitely be right to go by the start of the pre-season games," he said.

Before he began struggling with injuries, McIntosh had been North Melbourne's No.1 ruckman.

However, he lost that mantle to Todd Goldstein in the past two seasons.

"Todd and I had an opportunity to work in the side as a duo, and at the start of this year I thought I was playing some decent football," McIntosh said.

"But Todd and I probably weren't connecting well, and then I went down injured and missed the rest of the year.

"Probably from halfway through the year I realised that it was probably time to go and move on and look for other opportunities.

"When I heard about this opportunity to come to Geelong … it's such a great club that I grabbed it with both hands.

"It wasn't an easy decision. It's never easy to leave a club you've been at for 10 years. It's like a family.

"But I'm just looking to getting my body right and improving my footy and helping the Cats get some more success in the next couple of years."

McIntosh, who was a passionate Geelong supporter as a child, expects to spend most of his game-time next season in the ruck, which could result in Trent West spending more time up forward.

"I'd imagine I'll be playing ruck. I'm a ruckman at heart," McIntosh said.

"But all ruckmen these days have to be able to play both positions, so I'll be playing forward as well at some stages."

The biggest challenge facing McIntosh might be making sure he doesn't get his former and current coaches confused.

Having been coached by Brad Scott, he'll now be playing under his twin brother, Chris.

"It's a different feeling to go from twin to twin, but I've had a couple of meetings with Chris and he seems very similar to Brad, obviously," McIntosh joked.

Adam McNicol covers Geelong news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter at @AFL_AdamMcNicol