BERNIE Vince's fairytale finals farewell remains alive, with the retiring Melbourne midfielder making a return from surgery on an AC joint in the VFL on Saturday. 

Vince will line up for Casey in the club's preliminary final clash with Essendon just five weeks after the operation on his shoulder. 

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The 32-year-old announced two weeks ago he would retire at the end of the season after 229 AFL games, but a rapid recovery has pushed that retirement date back a few weeks. 

The Demons have quite a settled senior line-up, with Vince probably needing an injury to force his way back for an unlikely appearance in an AFL preliminary final against West Coast or AFL Grand Final (if Melbourne wins next Saturday). 

Vince has played 17 AFL games this year, the last coming in round 20 against Gold Coast. 

Teammate Tom McDonald spoke about the bonus of having Casey still playing at this time of year. 

"It's really important, we're all going out today to see them. They haven't got the good weather today, bit windy and drizzly, but having both of us involved is such a good result for both levels," McDonald said. 

"Guys who are maybe injured or pushing for form can come up, there's still opportunities there if someone goes down. You don't want to make changes to your senior side, but if you don't have the VFL side playing it makes it really tough, because at training if you play a game or organise a scratch match, you're risking injury." 

Stay tuned to AFL.com.au on Saturday afternoon for a wrap-up of Vince's performance for Casey.