Headland has played three games in the WAFL reserves and one league game for Subiaco last week to work his way back from a knee injury that has sidelined him since round four.
Even though playing for Fremantle means Headland will fall one game short of being able to play in the WAFL finals, assistant coach Chris Scott is convinced his return will boost the group.
"He's really excited. One of the reasons we were keen to get him back is because he has worked so hard to do so and we want to reward him," Scott said.
"He will be a little nervous, which is good because it brings some freshness and new enthusiasm to the side, and we all know that he is very valuable when he gets the ball in his hands."
Most of Mark Johnson's best career memories have come at the MCG, including the 2000 premiership with Essendon, and Scott has enjoyed having him at Fremantle in 2008.
"People have been critical of the move to get Mark to Fremantle but he has been fantastic for our group of players," he said.
"We have a lot of young developing players and he has been a really good role model for them. I'm not sure how much players lift for others as I'm of the view that you are always doing your best, but if it gives us a little extra that would be nice."
The round four 64-point loss to Richmond was Fremantle's most disappointing of the season and Scott is confident of a better showing this week and of combating Matthew Richardson and the Tigers' pacy small brigade.
"I think Richmond has actually improved since then, so that's a worrying sign for us if we look too much into that game, but we expect to perform a lot better as that was very close to being our low point of the season," he said.
"It has been interesting to see him (Richardson) alternate between almost being a genuine midfielder and permanent forward. We expect to do a bit of both again on Saturday and there's very few players that have his physical attributes. The question is do we try to lock down on him completely or try to attack him.
"They have a lot of agile smaller players with real pace. That’s obviously an area we have tried to improve but it's all about using our strengths to our advantage and trying to limit theirs. There's an element of not allowing them to get momentum at stoppages and we've seen some improvement in our stoppage work, so hopefully we can continue that."
