VERSATILE Carlton tall Jarrad Waite is hoping to make his awaited return from a knee injury in the third or fourth week of the NAB Cup competition.

Speaking from AFL House on Monday, Waite was optimistic about his prospects despite being sidelined since round 10, 2009.

"Hopefully I can full train for two or three weeks and then sneak in towards the end of the NAB Challenge and have a few games and then hopefully be alright for round one or two," he said.

With 2009 Coleman Medallist Brendan Fevola now at the Brisbane Lions, the 27-year-old expects to still be used in defence but spend more time as a forward.

"I've always played that role [at both ends of the ground], so I'll continue it this year," Waite said, adding his preference was to play as a backman.

Waite was adamant a mixture of players would help offset the loss of Fevola and said the Blues would use the pre-season competition to get their forward structure in place.

"For the last 10 years that Brendan's been there we've had one forward," he said.

"Now we've got a very potent forward [line] - [Brad] Fisher, we'll chuck [Matthew] Kreuzer down there and [Simon] Wiggins.

"We don't want someone that kicks 80 goals. We want about four or five that'll kick 30 or 35 goals [each] and make it hard for oppositions to defend us."

Waite said midfielder Marc Murphy (groin), who finished runner-up to skipper Chris Judd in the John Nicholls Medal, should also be ready for the first round of the premiership season.

He touched on the recent off-field indiscretions involving Ryan Houlihan, Andrew Walker and Eddie Betts and said all of his teammates now knew where they stood.

"Hopefully we know the rules now and if any of our boys play up, you're pretty much out the door, so it's not going to happen again," he said.

"Eddie is the skinniest and leanest he's ever been and Walks has got about two per cent body fat on him and looks a bit scary.

"They're training the house down and we hope that'll continue for the rest of the year. We really expect three really good seasons out of each of them, so it's really exciting."

Meanwhile, Western Bulldogs forward Robert Murphy, who also attended the NAB Cup launch, said boom recruit Barry Hall had fitted in well at Whitten Oval.

"[He's] perfect for our forward line and he's really popular amongst his teammates, so we can't ask much more than that," Murphy said.

"He's celebrating his birthday today, so he's got a bit of a spring in his step."

Murphy said Hall was likely to line up against the Brisbane Lions at Canberra's Manuka Oval on Sunday.

"He got through unscathed on the weekend, so I would think so [that he will be playing], but I'm not positive," he said.

Jarrad Waite is a $343,600 defender/forward in this year's Toyota AFL Dream Team.

Robert Murphy is a $350,800 forward.