Rovers' Brodie Filo in contention to return to seniors against Albury

The league's best and fairest in 2018 hasn't played since missing the game against Corowa-Rutherglen on May 21.

He was named the club's best the previous week in the shock loss to Wodonga.

Football operations manager Barry Sullivan told The Border Mail earlier this month the 32-year-old had some issues to work through, but the club would "wrap our arms around him and help him out as much as we can."

"Obviously I'm very close to Brodie, we've worked through it and he's been in a really good position, the boys have really got around him and he's very apologetic," coach Daryn Cresswell offered.

"Hopefully he can come back and play some really good footy for us in the back end of the year."

Cresswell didn't confirm whether the magical midfielder will return in seniors or reserves as the club will only name its team for Saturday's home clash against Albury after training on Thursday night.

"He's been training the last two weeks, he'll be in contention to play seniors this week," he suggested.

Filo thrilled the O and M during his previous stint under Cresswell at Wodonga Raiders in 2017-18, finishing runner-up in the Morris Medal on debut, despite missing the last month of the regular season with a broken jaw.

He went one better the following season before departing the club midway through 2019.

Filo hasn't matched his Morris Medal season, which admittedly set an incredibly high benchmark, and given the quality of the competition, an outsider would think he and his fellow high profile team-mates would need to hit similar standards if the Hawks are a chance to snap a 28-year premiership drought.

"We've got some plans in place for how we want to play our footy going forward, I think on the weekend it shows you need an even contribution, with the talent we've got in our side, we can match most teams, but it certainly helps if Brodie's up and firing, he's a pretty hard player to stop," Cresswell reasoned.

The Hawks surprised many in the league last week when it pushed Wangaratta to within 14 points.

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Prior to that, Myrtleford had been the closest on 32 points as the Pies racked up five triple-figure wins.

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