Adelaide's Graham Johncock is wrapped up by Geelong ruckman Mark Blake in round 14 last year
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GEELONG hosts Adelaide as the first round of the NAB Cup continues at Telstra Dome tonight.
Both squads will have a pre-season flavour with younger players given opportunities in the absence of established teammates.
For the Cats, Steve Johnson, Cameron Mooney, Brad Ottens, Josh Hunt, David Wojcinski and Darren Milburn will be missing, as will captain Tom Harley who is still recovering from knee surgery.
Simon Hogan, Nathan Djerrkura, Scott Simpson, Dan McKenna, draftee Mitch Brown and rookies Jeremy Laidler and Brodie Moles were named in the 29-man squad on Thursday.
The Crows will welcome the return of forgotten forward Trent Hentschel, who hasn't played a game at this level since 2006.
But it's the second competitive hit-out for the Crows after suffering a heavy loss to the Indigenous All-Stars in Darwin earlier this month.
Andrew McLeod, Graham Johncock, Jon Griffin, Jared Petrenko and Jarrhan Jacky will resume in club colours after representing the All-Stars in that game.
Draftee Rory Sloane, 2007 recruits Patrick Dangerfield and Taylor Walker and former Lion Chris Schmidt are also in tonight's mix.
On paper, Adelaide has a strong balance of experience and youth but will have to contend with a Geelong midfield close to full-strength: Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Cameron Ling, Joel Corey and Joel Selwood all set to translate summer workloads to the field.
Bounce-down is at 7.10pm AEDT.
Click here for the squads.
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