DUAL AFL premiership ruckman Darren Jolly will make a return to his home club Lexton in the Maryborough-Castlemaine District Football League this year.
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Jolly started his football career with Lexton, before going on to play 237 AFL games with Melbourne, Sydney and Collingwood.
The 32-year-old played in Sydney's 2005 and Collingwood's 2010 premierships.
He was delisted by the Magpies last year, and after failing to have his AFL career extended this season by another club, has joined St Kilda as its ruck coach.
But he will also play at least four home and away games for Lexton, which would be enough to qualify him for the MCDFL finals.
"There's a couple of early games and a couple of games later in the year that are locked in, and the finals where available if we get there," Lexton coach Shane Fisher said.
"He's a Lexton local, so it's a great gesture for him to come back and play around his St Kilda ruck duties.
"Our playing group, especially our big blokes, are excited about learning a few things off him and he can only help our group.
"I think he should be still on an AFL list, but his loss is both ours and St Kilda's gain because all the feedback is he's doing a terrific job as ruck coach there. He's a very positive guy and we can't wait to have him part of this year."
Lexton was beaten by Navarre in last year's MCDFL grand final.
The 100-point grand final loss to the Grasshoppers was one of two triple-figure hidings the Tigers copped during the finals series.
"We're shaping up OK, but we've got a hell of a lot to improve on," Fisher said.
"We got absolutely spanked during the finals series twice by more than 100 points, so that shows we've still got a fair bit of work to do."
