Rokewood-Corindhap has plucked veteran defender Leigh Ryall out of retirement.
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He will play his first game for the Central Highlands Football League season against Newlyn at Newlyn on Saturday.
Ryall hung up his boots at the end of last year after playing a key role in the Grasshoppers' last line of defence, having joined Rokewood-Corindhap in 2019 after long-standing careers with North Ballarat Roosters in the VFL and Redan in the BFL.
Ryall is one of three huge inclusions for the Grasshoppers, with last year's best and fairest Matt Aikman named to make his first appearance for the year after sustaining an ankle injury pre-season, and Cam Richardson back to play his second game for 2022.
Tom Fagg and Leigh Colledge are other inclusions while recruit and former Box Hill VFL player Anthony Fagan is unavailable after one game, and Jordan Grant and Ryan Aikman (broken collarbone) could not be considered.
Grasshoppers joint coach Brad Macgowan said while Matt Aikman had been selected, the final call on whether he played would not be made until Friday. "We're not 100 per cent sure yet," he said on Thursday night.
Macgowan said Aikman had a physiotherapy appointment on Friday and the outcome of that would determine whether he played.
"He's been training for a couple of weeks and trained fully on Wednesday night and looked fantastic. It's just a matter of getting the final tick of approval."
Macgowan said Ryall's return had largely come out of the blue and the club was excited to have him back.
Rokewood-Corindhap has been unable to fill the role that the tall Ryall played last season.
The Grasshoppers are sixth on the ladder, but just two games inside the top eight and a long way short of securing a finals berth.
