Ottens to return via VFL

Geelong ruckman Brad Ottens is set to make his long awaited return via VFL side this Saturday when the Cats take on Casey Scorpions in what will be a curtain raiser for when Geelong go head to head with Adelaide. Ottens has been sidelined since round 2 with what was first thought to be a non-serious knee injury. The Cats went down the path of having surgery which led to complications and what was originally a 2-3 week injury saw Ottens miss the majority of the home & away season. The 29-year-old trained with the senior group and unless another setback occurs he will debut for the Geelong VFL side. “Brad trained well this week and if everything goes okay at training on Friday we will play him for a period of the VFL game,” General manger of football operations Nail Balme said. Geelong coach Mark Thompson is looking forward to Ottens returning to the side. “(He’s) very, very close and (we’re) happy to have him back.” Thompson said. “He’ll certainly play forward for a fair bit of the time. It all depends, we need to get him fit, we need to get him in form, so he’ll play some time forward,” he said. “But it might be the same scenario – we might just need to chuck him up on the ball and just get him to run to get fit. Teams for round 18 will be published at 5pm