Geelong star Tom Hawkins says the addition of former Adelaide forward Josh Jenkins will strengthen the Cats heading into the 2020 AFL season.

Jenkins joined Geelong via this year’s trade period after falling out of favour at the Crows, leaving Adelaide after kicking 296 goals in 147 appearances.

“I think adding Josh to our list (has) only strengthened it,” Hawkins said.

“Having small conversations with him, he feels like the last couple of years with his ankle he hasn’t quite been able to do what he wanted to over pre-season, so he gets a full run at it.

“Our footy club gives him a lot of confidence, we as players think that he can help us and he’s a pretty flexible player – he can play in the ruck and probably high forward and even I reckon where his strength lies is where he plays deep forward.”

Hawkins was confident Jenkins could fit into a forward line with himself and young tall Esava Ratugolea.

“I know it’s going to give us options if anything’s to happen to anyone – we haven’t had the luxury of having probably so many selection opportunities to play guys in the forward line, we’ve struggled with numbers a bit,” he said.

Hawkins looks most likely of the tall trio to play deep but said he hoped to have flexibility to push up the ground.

“I suppose with different oppositions and the way they play, playing deep will suit me,” he said.

“But in saying that I’d also like to get up the ground and get involved in the game a bit more.”