Geelong Cat Lachie Henderson back training; our visit to Kardinia Park and more

Geelong Cats AFL Geelong’s Lachie Henderson, Cameron Guthrie, Esava Ratugolea and Tim House along with a couple other injured Cats had a special training session this cold Geelong morning on West Kardinia Oval under the eye of Geelong training staff including David Johnson as their colleagues prepared for their VFL and AFL matches today. We went down for a coffee, milkshake a bite to eat on a pretty cold Geelong morning after swimming, the little bloke was keen to get down to the homeland after receiving his new junior membership in the mail the day before.

Henderson, who returned to the track only this week after a persistent knee injury that has seen him go under the knife (or the arthroscope) three times since season 2017, was partaking in running and kicking drills, he and the other players hooked up to monitoring systems (see picture at bottom). While the Herald Sun yesterday pronounced Henderson ‘is scheduled to return to training next week’ he was certainly pushing himself this morning and appeared happy with how he was pulling up after each sprinting drill.

Esava Ratugolea (pictured below) who was an out this week with ‘general soreness’ joined the bunch, putting in some serious running on the boundary line for the most part. Cameron Guthrie (ankle) appeared along with Timm House (achilles) the happiest of the bunch although he’s listed as needing another 3-4 weeks before he returns. House is set to come back next week in the VFL. There was no sign of Nakia Cockatoo although we’re pretty sure Charlie Constable, Lachie Fogarty were participating.

It’s no Club Cats, which was good for a traditional bistro lunch or dinner, but the Charles & Co cafe comes into its own for breakfasts & brunches. We had the zucchini, corn and goat cheese fritters ($18.50, pictured) that come with a poached egg, smoked salmon and dill remoulade. Quite nice although the egg was well over-poached, more like a hard-boiled egg in all honesty. The little bloke opted for a vanilla milkshake and jelly slice ($6, pictured). We recommend popping in if you’re in the area, even if you just check out the Cats Shop – see a couple photos below for fun things the kids (big and small) can get into including sitting in a mock-up coaches box complete with magnetic board, or an exercise bike.