Ness was based in Wagga last year after a stint overseas and was set to play for his junior club, but COVID put those plans on ice for the 28-year-old.

But after watching new coach Michael Mazzocchi build a list which promises to transform Turvey Park into one of the big improvers, the midfielder couldn't turn down a chance to be a part of it.

After playing in the 2010 grand final as a teenager, Ness endured some tough times on-field at Turvey Park and plans to make the weekly travel from Melbourne this year worth it.

"Usually it's pretty difficult for a coach to come in and change too much, but I think what Turvey Park needed was a shake-up and to recruit some real quality players, it's exciting," he said.

"Probably the end of last year and start of this year it wasn't really on my radar to come back, but the chance to have some success at Turvey appealed to me more than playing somewhere in Melbourne.

"There's a lot of young blokes there and they've added that class, it's going to help us develop those kids."

"I'll train with a club down here (Melbourne) and try to get up there for a few sessions, but the club is happy for me to work around that."

Ness will be part of a new-look star-studded midfield at Maher Oval, including long-time The Rock-Yerong Creek gun Tom Yates, Magpies premiership player Andrew Saddler and five-time Ainslie premiership midfielder Ash Harris.

They endured a tough year in the shortened, six-team AFL Riverina Championship last year, and Mazzocchi is looking forward to translating strong recruiting into results.

"He (Ness) is a bit different to some of the other guys, he's more like a Tom Yates where he's really fit and a good ball user," Mazzocchi said.

"He and Tommy will rotate and they'll work pretty well together.

"I think he was exploring the option of playing in Melbourne, but when we put together a really good team that we think will be very competitive this year, part of his decision was he wanted to be part of that.

"A big part of our recruiting was to get in early and once you do that, you can attract a couple of others who want to be a part of it.

"The pre season so far has been excellent, we've had great numbers and I've had a lot of support from the players turning up and doing the work.

"We're looking forward to getting some match activity and seeing the boys play, because there's a lot of local blokes I don't know too much about."

Turvey Park will play the first of two trial matches against Charles Sturt University at Maher Oval on Saturday, March 20, before hosting North Wagga the following week.

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