Former Port Melbourne VFL player and Tassie Mariner John McKenzie will return to the state in February, adding to his family's rich history with the Thistles.

"I grew up running boundary and goal umpiring as a kid and I always wanted to play for them,' he said.

"Having both of my brothers [James and Alex] play there and my dad [Hugh] play there as well, it was a no-brainer coming back that I really wanted to go down and play for Old Scotch.

"My brother is getting older so it will be nice to play one game with him before he retires so I'm looking forward to that."

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Moving from Melbourne to his wife's home town of Grenfell in New South Wales earlier this year, the 27-year-old was touted as an AFL draft prospect in 2011 following All-Australian performances at under-age level.

Not selected while fellow Tasmanians Jimmy Webster, Aaron Hall and Henry Schade were, he played four seasons in the VFL at Port Melbourne before shifting to Maribynong Park in the Essendon Districts Football League, where he captained the past three seasons and made the league's team of the year twice.

"Going from a semi-professional at VFL level, I kind of lost the love for it in the end and then went to the Lions and really enjoyed the culture and community aspect of footy again," he said.

"That's what I think is a really good thing about Old Scotch, the fact that they don't have a junior program but there are so many kids or people coming back to Tassie that see them as their home club which is difficult to do without a junior program."

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Describing himself as a "footballer's footballer with no exceptional attributes", McKenzie will step into an assistant coaching role at the Thistles when he returns to the state - something he hasn't done before.

Another thing the midfielder hasn't done before is win a premiership, which he is hoping to achieve with his home side who shocked the competition and made the semi-finals of the opt-in NTFA Shield roster.