SEVERAL younger Geelong players might have already taken their first steps towards the 2009 season but the side’s assistant coach Ken Hinkley believes he will front a determined group when all players resume training next month.

Eight young Cats started pre-season training on October 20 but the remainder of the senior list – those who trained through until the AFL grand final – won’t return until a month after that date.

Next year Geelong will try to rebound after going down to Hawthorn on the final Saturday of September, a game in which many believed the Cats would win.

And Hinkley, who knows the pain of playing in losing grand finals after suffering defeats in the Cats’ 1992, ’94 and ’95 campaigns, says his team will be more driven than ever to regain its mantle as the No.1 team in the competition.

“We expect to have a hungry group when they get back,” Hinkley said at Skilled Stadium on Thursday.

“That’s like any footy club.

“They’ve obviously come off the disappointment of what happened and they just need to move on and go into 2009 with an attitude that they want to be the best they can.”

Hinkley said the Cats wouldn’t treat the approaching pre-season any differently to past campaigns.

“We’ve just got to make sure we get our fitness bases and everything right up to where they need to be,” he said.

“You’ve just got to train hard and make sure you’re ready at the start of the year. Again, because we’ve played late into the season we’re a late-starting club (with our pre-season) so we’ve just got to make the most of every day we get.”

Hinkley said captain Tom Harley, who had some “clean-up type surgery” last week, would be a little slower over the summer but should be fine while Tom Hawkins was close to losing his moonboot.

Hinkley said the Cats would like to think All-Australian defender Matthew Egan might be available by the start of next year but would see how he progressed over pre-season.

The assistant coach also praised the efforts of the younger Cats who have returned to training – Nathan Djerrkura, Adam Donohue, Dan McKenna, Dawson Simpson, Scott Simpson, and rookies Jeremy Laidler and Brodie Moles.

“It’s really tough for them to come back and only have seven blokes doing some skills and doing some running and everything else they have to do,” Hinkley said.

“They’ve been training really well, [it’s a] great credit to them.”

Hinkley confirmed Geelong had finalised its playing list ahead of tomorrow’s October 31 deadline.