Brisbane Lions captain Jonathan Brown will make his long-awaited return to action in Saturday night’s round-robin NAB Cup matches against Gold Coast and Melbourne at Metricon Stadium.

It will be the Lions skipper’s first appearance since Round 17 last year when injury cut short his season.

Lions coach Michael Voss named Brown in an unplaced squad of 34, alongside fellow senior players Simon Black, Jed Adcock and Matt Maguire.

Off-season recruits Ben Hudson and Jordan Lisle will play their first games for the Club since arriving via trade week at the end of last season, while first-round draft pick, Billy Longer, and Elliot Yeo will also don the Lions Guernsey for the first time.

2011 regulars Daniel Merrett, Josh Drummond, Niall McKeever and Andrew Raines were not considered for selection for this weekend.

In a precautionary move, Merrett, 27, was ruled out of the Lions’ round-robin matches against Gold Coast and Melbourne at Metricon Stadium with hamstring soreness.

With the injury minor, Merrett is expected to have at least one pre-season hit-out before the Lions’ opening round encounter against Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday, March 31.

The Lions unplaced squad of 34 is below:

2 RYAN HARWOOD
3 SAM SHELDON
4 JARED POLEC
5 BILLY LONGER
6 JOSHUA GREEN
7 JED ADCOCK
8 BRYCE RETZLAFF
9 ASHLEY MCGRATH
11 PEARCE HANLEY
12 JAMES HAWKSLEY
16 JONATHAN BROWN
17 CLAYE BEAMS
18 TODD BANFIELD
19 JORDAN LISLE
20 SIMON BLACK
22 BEN HUDSON
23 MATTHEW LEUENBERGER
24 JOEL PATFULL
25 RICHARD NEWELL (Rookie)
26 ELLIOT YEO
28 PATRICK KARNEZIS
30 JACK REDDEN
31 JAMES POLKINGHORNE
32 CHEYNEE STILLER
33 AMON BUCHANAN
34 JESSE O’BRIEN
35 RYAN LESTER
36 MATT MAGUIRE
38 TOM ROCKLIFF
41 MITCHELL GOLBY
43 ROHAN BEWICK
44 AARON CORNELIUS
45 BRAD HARVEY (Rookie)
47 JACK CRISP (Rookie)