The Camperdown forward’s expectations entering his next – some 11 months after he suffered a season-ending knee injury – are much lower.

“I just want to get through the game, being my first game back,” he said.

“I’m not really nervous because training has been good but I’d like to create an option up forward for the boys and be competitive.”

Bain, who slotted 23 goals from five games at Hampden level in 2016, has recovered fully from a setback which impacted the latter stages of his pre-season.

The Queenslander had an arthroscope after scar tissue was found in his knee cap.

“It’s been a long recovery back but I’ve done everything the physios have told me to do,” he said.

“I’ve stepped it up and been training really well the last few weeks.”

Bain said he was excited to repay the Magpies’ faith, starting against Terang Mortlake on Saturday.

“Four or five months after I did my knee, they called me and said ‘what do you think about coming back’?,” he said.

“I had a think about it. I love the club, love the area and thought ‘why not have another go?.”

Bain believes Camperdown has the arsenal to respond to its heavy round one loss to Koroit.

“We played a really good first half and dropped off a bit in the second half but we’ve worked on that at training,” he said.