While it’s strictly business during the week for the carpentry colleagues, all bets will be off once the ball bounces at Norm Minns Oval at 2pm on Sunday.

“Stuff him,” Gaston says with a laugh.

The Hawks captain is desperate to complete the double over the Magpies after their rousing come-from-behind win in round five, but he is wary of stirring Kelly up too much.

The match at W.J. Findlay Oval on April 24 was the start of a two-month stint on the sidelines for Kelly as he battled a hamstring complaint and Gaston knows all-too-well that the Magpies will be a different proposition this time around.

“You get into him a little bit but you try not to poke the bear too much especially with the little fella there, who I don’t think has played a bad game against us in living history,” he said.

“In that last quarter I was thinking to myself, this is a Matt Kelly moment … this is normally where he gets five or six clearances and dominates. I was pretty happy when he wasn’t playing.”

Sunday’s match will be Kelly’s third since he returned from injury and while he’s still working towards full fitness, he has proved more than a handful swapping between the midfield and forward line against Yarrawonga and Lavington.

The Magpies are sixth on the ladder, six points behind Myrtleford, but have a favourable run home as they chase their first finals appearance since 2011.

“We’ve set ourselves a five-week challenge and if we can win four, if not five, of those, we should be sitting in the top five at the end of the season,” Kelly said.

“Keeping a full list of cattle on the park helps, certainly with rotations late in the last quarter and obviously last time we played them they overran us.”