FORMER Port Adelaide premiership player Stuart Dew has surprised Hawthorn with the rate of his AFL comeback.

Dew will play his first AFL match for the Hawks on Sunday against Melbourne at the MCG, along with newcomers Cyril Rioli and Cameron Stokes.

Hawthorn will be without key players Luke Hodge, Shane Crawford, Campbell Brown and Jordan Lewis, all through suspension.

Dew, 28, retired at the end of 2006, but the Hawks picked him up last November in the NAB AFL Draft.

The first and most obvious challenge has been some serious fitness work over the summer for Dew, who was never renowned for an athletic build at Port, and then lost conditioning during his year off from football.

But coach Alastair Clarkson was among several members of Hawthorn's football department who had worked with Dew in South Australia and knew he would put a lot of effort into his comeback.

"We knew it was going to be a tough road, but we also knew given that Andrew Russell, myself, Damien Hardwick, Geoff Morris and Chris Pelchen had all worked with Dewy before, we knew he had the character and attitude to be able to cope with the challenge," Clarkson said.

"We knew it was going to be a significant one, but him getting himself up and playing in round one was always the goal that we had in mind.

"In actual fact, he's a little bit ahead of that because he's played a couple of NAB Cup games ... we didn't perhaps forecast that when we set the path in motion last November."

Dew, a booming left-foot kick, said he went into his comeback with eyes wide open, well aware of the risks involved and the scepticism that he could regain AFL fitness.

One of the main factors that helped him was coming into a strong club, with plenty of expectations about success.

"That was always going to happen, it's happened over the time, whether I've been as fit as I've ever been in my life," Dew said of the media focus on his weight.

"Once it's an issue once, it's always there, no matter what - if I was going to be worried about it, I wouldn't have put myself out there for that criticism.

"That's where the support of players, (the) club - that's all that really matters, that's how I would measure myself.

"I've been around footy clubs enough to know that's where you should get your feedback from, not from outside."

Rioli and Stokes are highly-rated indigenous players from Darwin, with Rioli coming to the Hawks in the November draft and Stokes a rookie-listed player.

The Riolis are Northern Territory footballing royalty - Cyril's immediate relatives include former AFL players Michael Long, Maurice and Dean Rioli.

Long and Rioli's parents were at the club on Friday as Cyril, Stokes and Dew received their guernseys from former Hawks premiership player John Kennedy Jnr.

In other final selection news for Sunday's games Melbourne have picked Isaac Weetra and Cale Morton for their senior debuts.

Former Adelaide players Scott Welsh and Ben Hudson will make their debut for the Western Bulldogs against their old club at Telstra Dome.

Meanwhile, the Crows have picked Kurt Tippett and David Mackay for their AFL debuts, while former Port Adelaide player Brad Symes will play his first official game for the club.