Geelong forward Steve Johnson has declared himself ready to return to face Collingwood in Saturday night's AFL preliminary final after a recent hip problem.

Johnson underwent surgery towards the end of the home and away season to correct an injury he had carried since the mid-season.

But was confident the problem would not be an issue when the Cats and Magpies play at the MCG for a grand final berth.

"If everything goes well with my hip this week - it felt good the last week at training - only if something else goes wrong that will be the only thing that stops me," he told the Nine Network on Sunday.

"I'm feeling 100 per cent at the minute."

Johnson said he trained lightly at the start of last week and took part in two thirds of the Cats' solid session on Friday.

"Hopefully in the next couple of days and before the game I can build on that and be feeling good coming into the game," he said.

The Cats are also hopeful of regaining half-forward Max Rooke, who missed the qualifying final win over the Western Bulldogs because of a quad injury.

Aside from getting a first-choice side available, Geelong's biggest challenge during their weekend off was using the longer break better than they did in 2007-08, when they struggled in their preliminary finals, albeit they won both.

Geelong coach Mark Thompson was pleased with the tinkering he had implemented this time.

"We've trained a little bit (more) solidly, we treated it more like a normal week than we have in the last couple of years," Thompson told Nine.

"To be honest we've had a fantastic week, the guys are really switched on, they haven't gone on holidays at all, they've been at the club and doing everything they need to do to get themselves up for this week."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP