BRISBANE Lions defender Daniel Merrett is not surprised in-form fullback Matt Maguire returned early from an elbow injury.
Maguire suffered the injury in round 13 and was expected to miss up to five weeks, but will return against his former team St Kilda on Saturday night.
His return allows Lions coach Michael Voss to keep vice-captain Merrett in a beefed-up forward line alongside captain Jonathan Brown, Patrick Karnezis and the recalled Aaron Cornelius.
Merrett said Maguire had done everything possible to beat his original prognosis.
"[He's the] ultimate professional," Merrett said.
"If you saw how much time Matt Maguire puts into his body to get right each week … even on the day off he's still at the club for six hours getting his body right for the weekend.
"No surprise he's come in a couple of weeks early. He's a great inclusion for us."
Maguire is likely to stand alongside Justin Koschitzke, while Joel Patfull should get first crack at Saints skipper Nick Riewoldt.
Merrett said he hoped the big Lions forward set-up would give the Saints some headaches.
It's an area of the ground St Kilda coach Scott Watters admitted was a concern ahead of the Saints' final training run at the Gabba on Friday afternoon.
"Merrett, Brown, Cornelius, they're all good players so we have to be right on our game," Watters said.
"It's an area of our list that is a question mark, that key defensive role, but we thought we took some steps there last week."
He praised youngster Tom Simpkin and said he had confidence the 21-year-old could handle a key defensive post.
Sam Fisher, James Gwilt and Sean Dempster will also be charged with key roles in the back 50.
Neither camp was worried by the expected poor weather in Brisbane, with Merrett confident his forward mates could do the job.
He said the 6-8 Lions were not shying away from the significance of the contest against the eighth-placed Saints (7-7).
"Considering where the season's at, if we win this, it really opens the door for us," Merrett said.
"As players we realise how big this occasion is and we're ready for it.
It is a big game and big challenge. It is a must-win game for us.
"We haven't been in finals for a couple of years so to have that pressure here on a Saturday night at the Gabba, hopefully we get a really good crowd along and the atmosphere is electric, so as a player it is exciting to have that build up to a game."
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
