Maverick Weller says he feels like a kid again.
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Stepping back out on West Park again just days before gracing the turf as a Burnie Docker for the first time since Gold Coast snapped him up as prodigiously talented 17-year-old more than a decade ago, he can't help but smile as he's finally back home again.
The 28-year-old, whose journey at the top level saw him play 123 games for the Suns, St Kilda and Richmond, will run out for his first game of football since last year's winning VFL grand final for the Tigers when the Dockers host Ulverstone in the NWFL on Saturday.
"This is a pretty special place for me at West Park, because as a kid I was here playing senior footy around the age of 14 or 15, and there was a lot of excitement and a lot of nervous energy as I was coming up against men for the first time and we had a really good team back then,'' Weller said on Tuesday.
"So for me it does feel very right to come back and play footy again here as it really does feel like home."
Weller and his partner Maddison completed their 14-day mandatory quarantine period over the weekend, with Weller saying it did deliver some 'cabin fever' near its end, after arriving from Melbourne and are settling into life on the Coast.
It is a decision already Weller says was the right one considering how enjoyable life in Tasmania is compared to the COVID-19 locked down Victorian capital.
"I'm not going anywhere and this was always part of my plan after 10 or 12 years away to come back and settle down more and just have a bit more of a change of pace,'' he said.
With that in mind he does see football as very much a bonus, but it is one he said he was very keen to embrace, which started at training on Monday.
"I haven't touched a football for a while considering we have been locked inside, so there will be some nervous butterflies Saturday and I am just keen to have a run around with the boys,'' he said.
"I won't put many expectations on myself, as I will just be going out there to play my role and support the young group as I know a lot about football and I think I can share quite a bit with these younger guys.
"For me it is about getting out there and just running around as the last six months have been really tough and footy has always been a release for me, so for me it has been a long wait.
"The last few years I have been playing majority midfield and forward, so I'll likely do that again here I reckon."
Weller, a one-time member of St Kilda's leadership group, retired from the AFL at the end of last season after making his name as a midfield tagger or defensive forward, and had signed with Doncaster East in the EFL Premier Division both as a player and as a midfield coach before COVID-19 put a halt to football in Melbourne in 2020.
It is set to be a big weekend for the Weller family with Maverick's younger brother Lachie due to play his 100th AFL game on Sunday when Gold Coast hosts North Melbourne at Metricon Stadium.