Yates suffered a brain aneurysm at home last year and has been slowly recovering to a point where he is once again able to take to the pitch, albeit at a lower grade.

BACK ON TRACK: Nathan Yates reveals the scary period where his life was in the balance.

But Mount Clear skipper Jarrod Burns says any miracle return to first grade should be put on hold at this stage.

"Unless he comes up to me at training and says, 'put me in', I don't think it will happen this year," Burns said.

"He's hitting the ball well, but he's still having a bit of trouble catching and things like that. Right now, he's not 100 per cent right. So we'd say probably not this year (for a firsts return) at this stage."

In the firsts, Mount Clear lost top spot when it fell 13 runs short of Wendouree's 268 last week, but Burns knows the club didn't do much wrong.

"We were rapt with the chase," he said. "We matched them pretty well and threw everything at them.

"Our batting had been struggling a bit, but a few guys have started to hit the ball well."

Burns said Mount Clear still had ambitions of top spot on the ladder, which in the new final six structure will guarantee the top side a double chance.

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