DT Update: Tribunal

Hawthorn midfielder Jordan Lewis will be free to face Collingwood this weekend after getting off a charge of striking at the tribunal tonight.

Lewis was challenging a one-week-ban for striking North Melbourne's Michael Firrito, and the Hawk was successful.

In other news, Adelaide's James Sellar accepted a fine for running into an ump.

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Ablett Back, Stevie Johnson Not

There's plenty of guns returning to the Geelong side this week including star $474k midfielder Gary Ablett, but it seems popular $405k forward Steve Johnson will miss again.

Geelong coach Mark Thompson said on Tuesday, “Andrew Mackie, Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett and Travis Varcoe will play. (Darren) Milburn is a really good chance, and so is (Cameron) Ling.”

Milburn and Ling along with Stevie Johnson and gun midfielder Jimmy Bartel (hip) have been put on the injury list as facing a test.

Speaking about Johnson, Thompson said, "He’s more likely not to play but he hasn’t been ruled out for this week yet.”

$364k midfielder James Kelly is expected to miss the Round 16 clash with Melbourne with a hamstring.

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Cox To Miss 2-3, At Least

West Coast gun duo Dean Cox and Daniel Kerr will miss at least 2-3 weeks with the club deciding to send them to see a specialist in Adelaide.

WCE coach John Worsfold said, "The issue is that the soreness that they've got came on reasonably suddenly, but it hasn't gone suddenly and that's the concern.

"Both players are going to fly to Adelaide with the team on Friday to see a specialist in that area over there, just for another opinion on what he thinks may be happening.

"At this stage we're hoping that they may only miss two or three weeks and we'll get them back up and going."

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Around The Grounds

• Sydney's $331k midfielder Jarrad McVeigh has claimed he'll be okay to resume in the AFL this round having been a late withdrawal with a hamstring against Carlton on the weekend. McVeigh said, "In the warm-up it didn’t feel right so I decided not to risk it. We thought it was better to miss one week than one month. I felt it in the week before in the match against North and with the short week we thought it would be right but I could feel it not being totally free during the warm-up so it was better to be safe than sorry.”

• $197k North Melbourne defender Jesse Smith is on the comeback from injury but the Kangas claim they may not risk the injury-prone youngster in the AFL this season. North footy manager Donald McDonald said, "At this stage we just want him to recover well from the game and then we’ll meet at match committee as to where he’ll play this week but he’ll be in the VFL again."

• Smith's $215k North teammate Gavin Urquhart has been listed on the Kangas' injury list as out for 1/2 weeks with a groin injury. Nevertheless McDonald said, "It’s probably going to be one of those ones where we won’t know until Thursday’s training as to whether or not he’ll be available for selection this week.”

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