JIMMY Bartel is looking forward to spending more time in the midfield this season as Geelong seeks to inject some additional experience into its on-ball brigade.

The 31-year-old showed his liking for life in the middle of the park when he gathered 26 disposals (and 110 AFL Fantasy points) in Sunday's narrow loss to Gold Coast in Townsville.

And the performance gave Cats fans a taste of what to expect from the 2007 Brownlow medallist during the home and away rounds.

"I'll play a bit further up the ground this year," Bartel told geelongcats.com.au. "Whether that be at centre bounces or not, who knows?

"And I’ll still spend a bit of time forward, on the wing and a little bit of half-back."

Bartel isn't the only experienced campaigner earmarked for more midfield time this season.

Fellow triple premiership player James Kelly, who spent much of 2014 in the backline, is also expected to move back into an on-ball role.

"I think Kel will spend a lot more time in the midfield," Bartel said. "He's so strong over the ball and I think he's been one of the best tacklers of the last 10 years.

"His physical presence around the ball helps the younger guys and it also helps Joel Selwood. That's where he excels."

The moves have been earmarked as a way to improve the team's performance around the stoppages, something that has been a perceived weakness in recent years.

"I think every year you take lessons out of it – game style, player positions, you just keep evolving," Bartel said.

Although Bartel enjoyed being able to get into some competitive action against Gold Coast after a long summer on the training track, the conditions in North Queensland were tough.

However, he was pleased that the AFL allowed the game, which was played in 33-degree heat, to take place with no interchange cap or subs.

"Three o'clock in the afternoon in Townsville at time of the year was pretty interesting, but in hindsight it was probably a good time to play," Bartel said.

"I think it would have been pretty difficult to play at night. As it was during the day the ball was incredibly slippery, and with a bit of night dew on top of that it would have been worse than playing in the rain."

Bartel was pleased with the way a number of the Cats' younger players demonstrated their improvement against the Suns.

"The good thing is they're progressing rapidly," he said. "I think they're really hungry and keen and I don’t think they're satisfied with waiting a lot of time to get a spot, which is what you want.

"We saw great efforts from Darcy Lang, we saw flashes of Cockatoo and Gore and Gregson was really impressive across half-forward.

"Kolodjashnij is really putting pressure on our backline guys as well."

As for whether Bartel will be seen in Geelong's remaining NAB Challenge matches against Adelaide at Simonds Stadium on March 12 and against Carlton at Etihad Stadium on March 22, the man himself is keen to be part of them.

"Because we've got 10-day breaks between games I think I'll play them all just because it's better than training," he said. "Training is boring!"