SCOTT Gumbleton will play his first game for his old WAFL club Peel Thunder since 2006 on Saturday, with the Fremantle recruit making a full recovery from a nasty hamstring injury suffered during the NAB Challenge.
Gumbleton kicked 18 goals in 15 WAFL games with Peel as a 17-year-old before being selected by Essendon at No. 2 in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft.
He managed just 35 AFL games in seven injury-ridden seasons with the Bombers before making a much-publicised move back to Western Australia during the off-season.
After a quiet debut in Fremantle's first NAB Challenge match of the year against West Coast, the 25-year-old badly tore his right hamstring against the Western Bulldogs in the Dockers' second NAB Challenge match on February 26.
Gumbleton joins 18 Fremantle-listed players who are available to play for Peel against East Fremantle including Colin Sylvia, Anthony Morabito, Clancee Pearce, Jon Griffin, Kepler Bradley and Hayden Crozier.
The Dockers named an unchanged line-up for Sunday's clash with Adelaide despite some doubt over the fitness of Nat Fyfe, after a swollen ankle saw Fyfe miss training on Wednesday.
Scans on Monday had cleared Fyfe of any damage, and it appears the star midfielder has recovered sufficiently to take his place against the Crows.
Ross Lyon's options at selection were limited by the fact that Fremantle's WAFL affiliate Peel has had two consecutive byes due a strange quirk in the WAFL fixtures.
Lyon said on Wednesday that the Dockers' squad members vying for senior selection had been forced to do pre-season type training in order to try and maintain match conditioning.
"They worked really hard last week," Lyon said.
"There's no substitute (to games), we know that.
"It's fair to say it hasn't been an ideal situation, but utopia doesn't exist.
"There's always positives and negatives, but it's what you choose to dwell on.
"If you can't control it, don't worry about it. You do your best to make things up, and that's what we've done."
