Carey sat out last season after his 2020 campaign was ended by a high shot that cracked his eye socket.

However after watching Brothers struggle through a winless season last year Carey is one of the familiar faces back in the fold.

"There were a few of us coming back so I thought I may as well too," Carey said.

"I've got some mates there and it's good to be back."

Carey will slot into the second row for the clash with Gundagai at Equex Centre on Saturday.

He's been a jack of most trades in the top grade and is more than happy to slot in whether the team needs him.

Especially after getting some confidence from the trials.

"It felt a bit weird at the start but it was good to have those two games," Carey said.

"I can get a bit of confidence back and I should be sweet."

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Brothers co-coach James Hay is thrilled to have him back this season.

"Having Liam Carey and Aaron Wynne through in the middle with a little bit of speed, and they are both very fit blokes, should tighten up the defence a lot and just some options in attack," Hay said.

Carey is in for a big test first up against a Tigers outfit with plenty of strike weapons.

With games against Tumut and Young to follow, the 24-year-old expects the team back on the rise will get a great indication of where the benchmark needs to be this season.

"We've got a tough run so we'll definitely see where we are at after these first three games," Carey said.

"Gundagai are definitely the benchmark so hopefully we can match it with them."

Brothers have shown some promising signs in the pre-season but Hay doesn't want to head into the clash with Gundagai with too many expectations.

Instead he just wants to see the side bring the right attitude against one of the competition favourites.

"Intensity and effort is the thing we really want to get out of the boys in the first couple of weeks," Hay said.

"It takes weeks and weeks for NRL sides to really gel together and get used to playing football so I'm not expecting it to be flashy and awesome in round one but as long as the effort is there and everyone is playing the football we want to play then we will be happy."

However they should be strengthened in the coming weeks with recruits Mitch Bennett and Bas Blackett both missing the start of the season due to a wedding while co-coach Brodie Rigg is suspended.

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