Geelong flirts with long-bomb rookie Shane Kersten WARY that a chronic back complaint will again sideline Tom Hawkins this Friday, Geelong coach Chris Scott has raised the prospect of debuting a super boot as a September smokey in the semi-final against Port Adelaide. Although Hawkins remains the preferred option, Scott is mindful of the possibility the condition can worsen at any stage, as it did when forcing his late withdrawal in the qualifying loss to Fremantle. "He has trained very strongly over the last couple of days and looks good, so as an optimist, we are thinking that he will be right and will play at his best but it is a case that we won't know for certain until Friday morning," he said. We are hoping it will be a good week and most importantly that he feels good on Friday but as we have said for the past couple of weeks, it really is an issue that can flare suddenly and he can be ordinary and not able to play and at other times it is almost normal. This is not something new for us. It is unsettling in the fact that you are missing one of your best players but within games this year ... we have gone to plan B, C and sometimes D, so I wouldn't think that if we went in planning for him to play, that it would completely unsettle us. Given Hawkins's struggles, Scott has been forced to consider a range of options but after Josh Walker battled when given a chance last week, the Geelong coach is considering launching the prodigious kicking Shane Kersten on Port Adelaide. "It would be bold, but I kind of like that," Scott said. It is not a guarantee, not even a likelihood that we will bring him in, but it won't be because we don't think he won't perform on the big stage. He has kicked a lot of goals in the VFL. He is exceptionally quick, strong on the lead but extremely good at ground level as well. He is a penetrating kick. He has no problems kicking goals from outside 50m. If he did come into our AFL team, he would add something different and complement our big strong key forwards. Kersten was drafted from South Fremantle and has spent two years honing his game in Geelong's strong VFL team. He managed 38 goals last year but suffered an interrupted start to this due to a hamstring injury before kicking 12 goals in five matches when resuming. A hip injury sidelined him for seven weeks but he kicked another 24 goals in six matches after returning. Scott first raised the prospect of playing the 20-year-old in May while VFL coach Matthew Knights said last month that the Sandgroper was on track to earn a crack at senior level. Shane's first couple of weeks back have been really good. More than anything, his second and third efforts when the ball hits the ground, that's what we've been most pleased with," Knights said. We know he kicks well for goal, we know he takes good marks, but we're really after that defensive pressure from him and that's something he's working at. It is his kicking for goal that has caught the eye at Geelong. In an interview last year with the Cats' VFL captain Troy Selwood, Kersten said he had entered several Super Boot competitions as a junior and was told he had kicked a goal from 75m out in a colts grand final in Perth. Kersten described the experience of training on defenders such as Matthew Scarlett and Harry Taylor as invaluable. "If you can work against the best in the AFL, when you eventually get to the top level, if I play AFL, it is going to benefit me," he said.