After a season wrecked by injury, Enright sparkled across the half-back flank, showing no signs of the knee and arm injuries that restricted his influence in 2005. Before the first of two extended stays on the sidelines last year (nine games in total), Enright was one of the Cats' best players and on Saturday he showed that he is set to recapture some of his best form.
Enright ran hard through the lines and delivered the ball cleanly in an encouraging first-up display.
Also pleasing was the form of some of the Cats' lesser lights, who showed there will be plenty of competition for spots in the senior team this season. Names like Nick Batchelor, Tim Sheringham and Brent Prismall are yet to grace the senior team sheet but their performances on Saturday would suggest that's about to change this season.
Prismall held his own in a battle with Darren Milburn in the centre while Batchelor and Sheringham showed plenty of poise and skills on the wing and half-back-flank.
"Batchelor and Sheringham both played well for us," Geelong assistant coach Ken Hinkley said. "Brent Prismall was very good as a midfielder on quality opponents, and we were pleased with Ryan Gamble and Todd Grima. Even young Matthew Stokes as well, the blokes we brought in showed a fair bit for the club."
About 1000 fans ventured to Skilled Stadium to see a spirited and competitive game that was played over four 20-minute quarters. Cam Mooney set the tone in the game's first passage of play when he rather unforgivingly buried Grima into the ground with a strong tackle and then followed it up almost immediately with a heavy shepherd on Gary Ablett Jr.
Eventually, play settled down and with midfield guns such as Cameron Ling and Joel Corey unusually opposed to James Kelly and Jimmy Bartel, space opened up and both sides ran the ball with swift movement that would have pleased the Geelong coaching staff.
"I thought it was pretty good. Especially the first half I though both sides moved the ball well when they had some space," said Hinkley. "They made good decisions and we were satisfied with the way they played the game, considering how little match play we have done."
In particular, Corey - minus the 'Grizzly Adams' beard that he had cultivated during the pre season - was impressive out of the middle in the first half. He, along with Ling - who also spent a fair amount of time deep forward later in the game - probably just shaded Kelly and Bartel.
Around the ground, the Cats also took the opportunity to monitor the form of some of their younger players against some of their more experienced team mates. As a result, Grima matched up against Mooney at centre-half forward, Nathan Ablett drew All-Australian full back Matthew Scarlett and second-year defender Matthew Egan played on Kent Kingsley (two goals) at full forward.
The youngest of the Ablett siblings, Nathan, finished the day with two goals and had it not been for some errant kicking, he probably should have kicked three or four. It wasn't an eye-catching performance from Nathan, but he led well and took the majority of his five marks further up the ground outside the 50-metre arc.
Older brother Gary Jr was in sparkling form as he effortlessly booted three goals in three quarters before being rested in the last. Gary's second goal of the match - a boundary line conversion from 40 metres after marking and playing on in the second quarter - was the highlight of the morning.
The Cats' injured list still includes Steven King, Tom Harley, Brad Ottens, Steve Johnson, Tim Callan, Andrew Mackie, Matthew McCarthy, Henry Playfair and David Wojcinski, while last year's top draft pick, Travis Varcoe, also watched from the sidelines. Nearly all are expected to return in the coming weeks.
"We are comfortable with where we are at with our playing list at the moment, and there are a lot of talented players still in that group," Hinkley said.
"If we were rushing towards playing next weekend, that group would be a lot smaller. There will be quite a few of them that will come into consideration from that game but we won't take any risks with any."
Geelong will play another intra-club match next Friday at Skilled Stadium.
