Hundreds of south-west youngsters flooded the Lake Pertobe playground on Tuesday to have a kick with 10 Geelong players including Tom Hawkins and two local lads. 

In between signing autographs and running drills, Cobden export Gary Rohan took the time to show off his media skills by interviewing Heywood’s Jamaine Jones for The Standard.

“Pre-season started slow, but I’m up to scratch at the moment and putting in a few good training sessions together,” Jones said.

And while Rohan hasn’t challenged Patrick Dangerfield to a 100 metre sprint just yet, the former Sydney speedster said his body is in perfect nick heading into the 2019 season.

“I’ve done every pre-season session so far and don’t have any injuries or niggles at all,” he said. 

Like Jones, Rohan said he was rapt to spend time with young Cats supporters in Warrnambool. 

“I've got a lot of family here today, so it's good to be able to give back to the kids,” he said. “I’ve tried to get them into the Swans colours before...and now I've got to change them into the Geelong colours.”

But perhaps best-on-ground was Warrnambool’s Tyson Hawkes, 12, who waited for the chaos to die down before nabbing a photo all to himself with Jones, Rohan, Cam Guthrie, Ryan Abbott, Wylie Buzza, Oscar Brownless and Stefan Okunbor.  

Warrnambool’s Charlea Macleod, 8, got a photo with dual-premiership player Tom Hawkins, who said he was relishing the chance to lead a forward line boasting newcomers Gary Rohan and Luke Dahlhaus, as well as Gary Ablett Jr, Esava Ratugolea and Jamaine Jones.

“We’ve got the ability to have a lot of players run through our forward line,” he said. 

“And the beauty for us is that it could be slightly different each week, depending on the opposition. So hopefully we can have some flexibility, which we haven't had for a while.

“The biggest challenge for us, as a forward-half group, is to be as consistent as we can.”

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