Lilydale's Lockett misses first game in decade, Rothwell back after 666 days

As coach Corey Lockett missed his first game since debuting in 2014, his teammate Reuben Rothwell returned to the field for the first time in 666 days.

Lockett missed through a badly sprained ankle, suffered in the last five minutes against Perth, ending a streak of approximately 180 consecutive games.

"My ankle just got caught underneath me in a tackle and I wasn't quite sure what it was seeing that I've never done an injury," he said.

"I feel like if I wasn't coach, it would be a lot worse because then I wouldn't have any input in anything - I just have to watch completely from the sidelines.

"Getting a different perspective and coaching from the sidelines, not being on the field, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

The 26-year-old began coaching the Demons last season, after captaining them from 2019 - making him a two-time premiership captain.

The Demons are undefeated through 10 games this year but even Lockett's long-time teammates were unsure about how he would fare on the sidelines.

"A few were worries that I'd be angrier if I was watching but it turned out the other way because I was able to speak to blokes more often as they came off," he said.

"I still obviously had [former coach] Colin [Lockhart] there as well, which was a big help with the rotations, so I was just able to take it all in rather than spraying them in the moment."

Saturday marked Rothwell's first game since the 2022 grand final loss to Old Scotch, with the forward rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in pre-season training for the following season.

Suffering the injury "two or three weeks" before the start of last season, he was unable to have surgery until October - meaning he's returned to the field just eight months post-operation.

"He passed all of his strength tests and had been training completely for a couple of months, so he'd been doing all of the work - I had all of the confidence in the world in him," Lockett said.

"Once he was cleared and ready to go, he was straight back into the ones and straight back into kicking a couple of goals in his first game."

Rothwell has played all of his football at Lilydale apart from some time in Western Australia where he played for Cockburn and East Fremantle.

He played in the forward-line on Saturday and will eventually progress into the Demons' midfield group, having played majority of the win over St Pats.

"His knee pulled up fine," Lockett said.

"He got a bit tight, wasn't sure if he hurt his hamstring but I think he only had a bit of cramp which was to be expected in his first game back."