Nathan Jones to make comeback with ‘home’ MPNFL club

The Melbourne 302-game champion will pull on the boots for his original MPNFL club.

Melbourne champion Nathan Jones will pull on the boots for Mt Eliza in 2023. Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images

He knows every blade of grass at Madsen Reserve.

And Nathan Jones, who started at the club as a seven-year-old, will feel right at home when he returns to play with Mt Eliza in 2023.

It’s understood he will play a handful of home games, in between his media commitments.

Long before he became an AFL star, Jones built a rare profile with Mornington Peninsula club Mt Eliza.

Starting out in the Redlegs’ under-9s, he did extraordinary things, regularly, on the field during a decade-long junior career.

They still talk about the time, in a lightning premiership grand final, Jones kicked 8.4 to propel Mt Eliza to victory after it trailed by nine goals.

Jones was always going to play AFL.

He was pick 12 in the 2005 national draft and debuted in Round 17, against the Dogs, and played out the year under Neale Daniher.

The Dees made the finals that year.

Jones went on to have a decorated career with Melbourne — 302 games, club captain for six years and three Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Medals (the only other Demon to do that was Jim Stynes).

Since retiring from the AFL in 2021, Jones often said he would return “home” and play once again for Mt Eliza.

The MPNFL will have a plethora of former AFL players running around this year, including Dayne Beams (Pearcedale), Paddy Ryder (Devon Meadows), Dean Kent (Devon Meadows), Ryan Bastinac (Pearcedale), Jack Lonie (Seaford), Dylan Roberton (Pines), Billy Hartung (Rye), Sam Dunell (Bonbeach) and Shane Savage (Pines).