JAKE Kolodjashnij will play against his twin-brother Kade for the first time today, when Geelong takes on Gold Coast in a preseason match at Townsville.
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The two Launceston-born footballers have had contrasting starts to their AFL careers since both were snaffled up in the 2013 national draft.
Kade took the nation by storm in his inaugural season with the Suns, while Jake has been quietly developing his game to hopefully one day lead the renewal of Geelong's defence.
Kolodjashnij, 19, is regarded as the heir apparent to Geelong mainstays Tom Lonergan and Harry Taylor; and will be pushing to make his AFL debut some time in the 2015 campaign.
To achieve that, Kolodjashnij has been working closely with arguably the game's greatest full-back this century and Cats champion - Matthew Scarlett.
"Matthew Scarlett is at the club now and we will continue to develop and hopefully we [young defenders] play a key role in the future," he said.
'I have been spending a lot of my time with Scarlo and he has been really good for me so far.
"He has passed on a few good tips and it has been really good.
"He was pretty much playing a similar position to me so he had got plenty of knowledge - it's been unreal.
"My preseason has been fine and I have been on the track for all of it which is good.
"I'm still building on my aerobic base ... and kept working on my defence and the way I want to play I guess.
"I'm feeling fit and ready to go, can't wait to start to get into games."
The 193-centimetre defender played 16 VFL games for Geelong last season and finished fourth in the best and fairest.
Kolodjashnij said he was confident he could continue to improve and all he hope for in 2015 is to play as much senior football as possible - be it VFL or AFL.
"[Being a good defender] is obviously beating your man and winning the contests and all that sort of stuff, but helping out your teammates, setting up in defence and working well as a unit are the main pointers," he said.
"I just want to play as much senior footy as I can and continue my development in defence, finish off the preseason strongly and be there ready for round one."
For now he is excited to run out in today's NAB Challenge clash and play against his brother with whom he played so much football when growing up.
He said he spoke to Kade on the phone about once a fortnight and spent a chunk of the summer back in Launceston with his family.