Brownlow Medal favourite Gary Ablett will almost certainly return for Geelong's AFL meeting with bottom-placed Melbourne at the MCG on Friday night.

Cats skipper Tom Harley said Ablett had impressed at training this week and only a setback in Thursday's final session could stop his return after three games out with an ankle injury.

"Provided he doesn't trip over a pothole or something like that, he's pulled up fine and he moved well," Harley said.

"It's been a pretty cautious approach for Gaz, I think perhaps in years gone by you might have rushed a player back say last week, but he's just making sure he's ticked all the boxes."

Even without him the all-conquering Cats would have been near unbackable favourites against the Demons.

What shapes as a tighter battle is between Ablett and fellow gun midfielder Jimmy Bartel for Brownlow favouritism.

Ablett was the clear bookmakers' choice before his injury but reigning medallist Bartel has almost closed the gap in his absence and Harley admitted he found it impossible to split them.

"Gary's form up until he got injured was as good as I've ever seen," Harley said.

"Probably since he's been injured Jimmy's form has been as good as Gary's was, so it would be nice to sit there on Brownlow night and see one of the boys win it.

"But there's so many good players out there and that's a really tough one."

Meanwhile, Harley said the Cats were finding it easier to focus on the tail end of the home and away season than they did last year, helped by having the 2007 premiership under their belts.

"Last year there was a whole lot of expectation and the unknown was really exciting and it was new, it was fresh, all those sorts of things," he said.

"A lot of anxiety crept in about this time of year, we were probably a bit gung-ho to get towards the finals.

"Our form not necessarily dropped off, but fluctuated, probably plateaued a little bit.

"This year I'm not thinking about winning a premiership like I was last year as such, so it's more of a level-headed approach."

Melbourne co-captain James McDonald acknowledged the Demons faced an enormous task.

But he said the Demons' youngsters were steadily improving and looked forward to testing themselves against Geelong's stars.

They were buoyed by the memory of getting within 30 points of the Cats in round three, after starting the year with two massive defeats.

"Everyone was saying it was going to be a record thumping ... we talked about that, that's given us a bit of confidence," McDonald said.

Friday night's match opens Tom Wills round, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first recorded game of Australian Football, umpired by Wills.

It was played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, on the site that now houses the MCG. Those two schools play a curtain-raiser on Friday.

Melbourne, formed in 1858, and Geelong, in 1859, are the league's two oldest clubs and will wear replicas of their original strips.

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