A former Victorian opening batsman is making a football comeback in the CHFL after giving it away almost a decade ago to focus on a first class cricket career.
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Travis Dean is joining his brother Matt among an influx of recruits for the Bulldogs, which meet Beaufort in the first round of the season at Daylesford's Victoria Park on Saturday.
The 32-year-old has been named on the interchange.
Daylesford coach Hamish Jarrad said Dean had been a late pick-up - making the call to join his brother at the Bulldogs after not having his Cricket Victoria contract renewed.
Jarrad said Dean's practice match form had been encouraging.
Dean last played football with Werribee Districts in 2015, giving it away when he was offered a CV contract late in that year.
He created domestic cricket history when he became the first man to score a century in each innings of a Sheffield Shield debut. He was also just the second Australian after Arthur Morris to score a hundred in each innings of his first-class debut.
Daylesford has a strong Werribee Districts flavour to a revamped line-up, with it being the recruiting ground for Cam and Trent Lee, Lee Johnstone and Chris Molivas as well as the Deans.
Former Geelong VFL player Jordan Schroder (Northcote Park) headlines the newcomers. He is coming off a year off the scene with a knee injury, but has put in some hard yards and is ready to go.
Alex Boyse (Northcote Park) and Aiden Lambert (Fitzroy VAFA) are other new faces.
Like Daylesford, Springbank and Rokewood-Corindhap have also undergone major changes in readiness for their clash at Wallace on Saturday.
Springbank has almost half its grand final side missing - now non-playing coach Andrew Challis, Stephen Staunton, James and Jarrod Curran, Fletcher Toose, Kieran Kennedy, Dylan Shelley, Matt Lakey and Kieran Maher.
Karl, Ryan and Terry Maher, Jasper Wilson-Keir, Stephen Wethling, Archie Geyle, Zac Kennedy, Connor Ronan and Braden O'Neil are the different faces.
Sam Carr, 2022 best and fairest Zac Jenkins, and Ryan Aikman are back with the Grasshoppers after spending last season overseas.
They also recruited as heavily as anyone and welcome into their line-up Port Melbourne VFL best and fairest Mack Rivett (Old Scotch), Caius Barrenger (Buninyong), Riley Fisher (Ballarat Swans), Will Hamer (Lancefield), Geoff Jolly (Western Rams), Chris Jeffreys (Sebastopol), Charlie Long (Old Scotch) and Tom Lamb (Redan).
OTHER CHFL MATCHES: Gordon v Dunnstown, Carngham-Linton v Learmonth (at Learmonth), Creswick v Ballan, Bungraee v Hepburn, Buninyong v Newlyn, Waubra v Clunes.
