Daniel Cross will play his first game for Albury this season

Albury will welcome back its favourite son in the home clash against Wodonga Raiders on Saturday.

"He's been running with the North Melbourne rehab crew, so he's in pretty good nick," co-coach Anthony Miles said.

The 249-AFL gamer joined North's high-performance staff last October, with his availability dependent on those commitments with the Kangaroos.

"It goes without saying what his elite experience brings to the club, but he's very clean, he still thinks really fast, his footy IQ is elite, you don't get to where he has without it, you don't lose that and the way he brings others into the game is first-class," Miles remarked.

Given his family and work commitments, it's remarkable the 39-year-old still retains the desire to make the 650km round trip from Melbourne.

"He plays for no other reason than he loves the jumper, he loves pulling on the Albury jumper with his family history (father Peter and uncle Terry played more than 200 senior games with the club)," Miles offered.

"He has his sons footy, cricket and basketball on Friday night, he drives down at nine o'clock, stays the night and then drives back after the game and to our young guys it's a real eye-opener, an inspiration."

Miles can't guarantee which games Cross will play.

"But we are hopeful of having him for a lot of games for the rest of the year," he added.

Cross's return is just what Raiders didn't need after the morale-sapping loss to North Albury, which has been the biggest upset of the first six weeks.

North wasn't expected to win a game this season, but produced an outstanding effort in downing Raiders by 23 points.

The Tigers will also welcome back dangerous utility Jake Page from a shoulder injury.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Albury has a three-two win-loss record and sits fourth, on percentage.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

FacebookTwitterWhatsappEmail