Cats veteran's season still alive despite injury

Well, the word from Tom Hawkins tonight is that Tom Hawkins isn't done with just yet. The Cats have confirmed he should be back from that leg injury before the end of the season. Let's go live to Nathan Curry in The Newsroom. Nathan, how long is he expected to be out for Tony? He's expected he'll miss 6 to 8 weeks. So best case scenario, round 21, round 22, worst case scenario. Looks like the Cats would need to make finals for Tom Hawkins to return from that foot injury, but he's optimistic he can come back. He provided his own update on his Instagram page for Cats fans to have a read this afternoon, saying that he's not done yet. He's definitely not retiring. He's going to spend the next 6 to 8 weeks sharpening up the tomahawk, His own joke there. I can't take credit for that. And he's confident he can still achieve something this season and there is plenty left. It is old legs just yet. Speaking of Other Cats veterans, we've got Patrick Dangerfield going before the tribunal tonight. It's been running a few minutes late but he's trying to get off that one match band against Sam Walsh. The Cats would certainly like to have him this Saturday night because they are coming up against Essendon who are certainly up and about at the moment. Back where it all began for the Guthrie brothers. The Cat's paying a visit to their junior club Sunbury Lions alongside Essendon's Jai Cordwell to launch this year's Country Game, a match Zach Guthrie wishes Tom Hawkins could be a part of. Hoping he gets get the result where he's able to get back and play some footy this year. Caldwell was a hit with the kids, especially his black eye. He knows the country clash is a chance for the Bombers to take a big scalp and prove they belong in the top four. We've been a bit off when we play the Cats, so hopefully become Saturday night we flip the script and can get the job done at Melbourne. So I'm a good when. He's showing Stephen May some love after the defender copped it for staging with the coach signalling out one media identity in particular. But Mark Robinson had come out and call him a cheat. It's probably a little bit too much. Goodwin says he won't be discussing the incident with May. I'm sure he's not the first person to to fight for a free kick and and get given one. But clearly it's an embarrassing situation when it gets called out of staging in in the public forum. Christian Salem is right to face the lions. Jake Leavitt just had to tick off training to return from his knee injury. It's gonna be great to get one of our leaders back, a really important player to us and obviously helps the back half of the ground. Meanwhile, May got to be the one starting the pile on this afternoon, announcing Next Gen. Academy product Andy Moniz. Wakefield will be making his debut. Nathan Curry, 9 News.