Andrew Collins today celebrated his re-drafting to the club as a rookie by clunking a few golf balls at a local driving range. 

He also lashed out and bought his Mum and Dad a coffee machine for Christmas.

Collins, a more popular team member there never was, admitted some relief in once again having his name called as a Carlton player.

“I was always hopeful of coming back to Carlton, but there was a little concern that I could potentially end up elsewhere, so I’m very grateful to be back at Visy Park.

“There was no way I wanted to leave.”

Originally taken by Richmond with its fifth round selection in the 2006 National Draft, Collins strung together 25 matches in all for the Tigers before crossing town as part of the Shaun Grigg trade. The past two seasons have netted him just nine senior matches for the old dark Navy Blues (the legacy of two shoulder recos), but with an injury-interrupted summer touchwood, Collins expects to be cherry ripe for the 2013 season opener.

Carlton’s National Recruiting Manager Shane Rogers said that while Collins initially had to make way to enable the club to activate its national draft selection, “there was always the guarantee that we were going to take him back”.

“Unfortunately ‘Collo’ was the unlucky one to be de-listed, but our intention always was to take him back as a rookie,” Rogers said.

“We just had to be a bit cagey how we played it as we had another club sniffing around the edges as late as yesterday, but we knew that we could take him with our second pick because their pick was after ours.”

No doubt disappointed with the club’s initial call in managing its list, Collins said he felt comfortable being with the playing group in Arizona and at ease with his own status at the time.

“It (the de-listing) came as a shock, but the quicker you deal with it, move on and concentrate on your preparation to play footy the better,” Collins said. “Now it’s business as usual.

“This will serve as a spur, but I don’t think it’s a wake-up call because I have huge respect for what I do and I really enjoy playing AFL footy. I think that I prepare and do most things right to keep my AFL dream alive.”