Nat Fyfe will bring the starpower but it’s Blake Acres who will provide the intel when Fremantle take on St Kilda at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.
Barring any late setbacks, Fyfe will return against the Saints having missed just one week with a hamstring strain.
Dockers coach Justin Longmuir also confirmed on Thursday that Acres will make his Dockers debut.
Acres played 75 games during his six-year stint at St Kilda before crossing to Fremantle at the end of last season.
The 24-year-old was a standout during the pre-season, but a serious hamstring injury before round one and then a calf injury before the season restart hampered his plans of debuting for Fremantle.
A star display in last week’s practice match convinced Longmuir that Acres was ready for a senior call-up.
Longmuir said he had tapped into Acres’ knowledge of St Kilda this week to help him prepare for the match.
“He’s provided a few insights into a few of their players and the way they go about it,” Longmuir said.
“They’ve obviously changed a lot, with Ratts (Saints coach Brett Ratten) having a full pre-season under his belt.
“But he knows a lot of their players well, so he’s given us a lot of good insights.”
Longmuir said Fyfe only had to get through Thursday’s training session unscathed to be named in the team.
“It’s always good to get your captain back in, especially when he’s a two-time Brownlow medallist,” Longmuir said.
“If he wasn’t 100 per cent fit, we wouldn’t be playing him.”
The Dockers were dealt a big double blow this week when defender Griffin Logue (toe) and forward Jesse Hogan (calf) were ruled out.
Longmuir is hopeful Logue’s toe injury will only rule him out for one or two weeks, but a more serious prognosis would result in a long stint on the sidelines.
Brennan Cox, who has missed the past two games with a hip injury, is expected to replace Logue.
Hogan could miss up to three weeks with his calf injury.
Longmuir said Cam McCarthy, who collapsed at training in June and was later diagnosed with epilepsy, wasn’t ready for an AFL recall just yet.
St Kilda (3-2) sit in fourth spot on the ladder following a bright start to the season, while the Dockers (1-4) are 16th.
