Wade Judd's looking to prove the doubters wrong when he lines up for St Pat's in this year's upcoming Western Reserve Grade Premiership.

The former best on ground winner from the Saints' 2008 Group 10 grand final triumph returns to the club for the first time in more than a decade.

Judd, 37, was lured back to the game by the prospect of playing a reserve grade season alongside former premiership-winning teammate Tim Holman, who will captain-coach the squad.

Having regained some confidence in his physical ability over the past few months of the pre-season Judd is keen to get things underway in 2024.

"It's great getting back around a few familiar faces who were a part of something many years ago," Judd said.

"Whether you want to call it a 'trial' or a 'project', we'll go out there and see what happens and how the body will handle it.

"I'm not sure whether it's a good idea or a bad idea but we'll know in a couple of months."

The early signs are positive for the former Western Rams representative.

Judd surprised himself during pre-season by finding out there was still a little bit left in the tank, both physically and mentally.

"Bully [Chris Osborne] the first grade coach said we were doing a 'bronco' [shuttle run exercise] in the first session and I said to him 'What about having a few beers and meeting the coaches for a first session?'," he said.

"After doing that bronco I thought there's no point in me playing but after about three weeks I'd knocked a minute and a half off when. When you get to that point you start to smell a bit of blood, I suppose.

"That encouraged me to give it go and do some of my own stuff."

Plenty has changed at St Pat's in the years since Judd was last playing for the club.

"After being there for four years you'd think you'd know most of the people there but there's barely anyone around who was playing back then. You'd even see some of their sons, which is a little concerning," he said.

"It's good to back though. It was an itch I needed to scratch, I think. The body has come to hand, just a little bit.

"I said to my little brother, who's 10 years younger than me, that he's in his prime and I'd give anything for it.

"It's only bush footy but whatever the best thing is that I'm capable of I want to be doing it. I said to my brother that once you get to my age you start to think 'Did I give it a crack?'"

Judd has made great memories across a range of Central West clubs.

Judd enjoyed stints with the Saints, Bathurst Panthers and Orange CYMS before jumping across to Oberon.

Judd made the move to the Oberon Tigers in 2013 to head the club's first season back in Group 10 premier league since 2007.

After three seasons with the Tigers - and a brief stint at West Wyalong - Judd moved back to the Panthers and played there until 2018.

In that time he won a reserve grade title in 2016 and was often coming off the bench for Doug Hewitt's premiership-winning 2018 squad.

He'd sign on as the Blayney Bears captain-coach for 2021 but stepped away from the role after picking up an achilles injury in pre-season.

Judd thought that would be the end of his playing days but when an opportunity came up this year to play under a former teammate he wanted to seize it.

"I had a bit of fun back at Pat's a while ago, and Timmy Holman was a bloke I played with in that grand final," he said.

"I said to my wife that this will be the last throw at the stumps and we'll see what happens. Timmy told me he was coaching the reserve grade side and I thought it would be a lot of fun."

St Pat's will be looking to build on their strong 2023 Western Reserve Grade season, which came to an end after an upset loss in the second week of finals to Blayney.