The seven-time Brian Lawrence Medal winner made a shock retirement call ahead of the final round leading into Christmas.

However he is expected to take on South Wagga to start the Twenty20 competition at Robertson Oval on Friday night.

Nicoll indicated he would be willing to help the club out in the holiday period.

With a number of COVID question marks hanging over the side, Cats captain-coach Josh Thompson expects to call him upon Nicoll.

"He's only helping us with the T20s because of the COVID situation," Thompson said.

"If players are unavailable he's going to fill in so I wouldn't say he is coming out of retirement but he's just trying to do the right thing if we are short on numbers."

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Wagga City are the only team to get the better of South Wagga so far this season.

However Thompson believes it is a very different scenario this time around in the shorter format of the game.

"We had a really good game all round last time with Maxy's performance (Aaron Maxwell) and being Jono's last game it was a good day for us but Twenty20s are a bit of a step up," he said.

"I think they have a lot of blokes up front who can get away from you while I don't think we can do as much damage up front.

"Trying to keep them to the lightest possible damage at the start of their innings will be key.

"If they get away from us they will be pretty hard to stop."

The Cats are scrambling to get a team together for their double header, with a clash against St Michaels also set down for Saturday.

Aaron Maxwell won't play on Friday, but is expected to be available to play the following day.

However South Wagga will come in virtually at full strength.

While Jake Hindmarsh won't play on Friday night, the Blues have only made one change from the side who slipped up against the Cats.

Noah Harper replaces Alex Whitbread in the side.

Captain Luke Gerhard is hoping for a better performance from their last effort against Wagga City.

"We didn't execute with the ball, didn't ball to our fields or our plans and dropped a couple of catches which probably cost us in the end," Gerhard said.

"With the bat we need to make sure we're consistent throughout the innings and that there are no overs where we lapse and don't score any runs. Especially in the Twenty20s when it is there you just have to take it on."

South Wagga then faces Lake Albert on Saturday.