Forgotten Richmond star Mark Coughlan will play his first AFL game in nearly three years after being named for Saturday night's clash against North Melbourne as under pressure Tigers' coach Terry Wallace again ringed the changes.

For the fourth successive week the winless Tigers made at least four changes as Wallace bids to save his coaching career with Richmond one of just two winless teams after four rounds.

Coughlan, Richmond's 2003 best and fairest winner, has not played since Round 12, 2006 when he suffered a serious knee injury against Hawthorn in Launceston.

The hard-tackling midfielder then was forced to undergo a second knee re-construction after breaking down again the following pre-season before missing all off 2008 with chronic hamstring problems.

But after a trip to Germany to see the same specialist that cured Geelong defender Max Rooke of a similar injury and Coughlan was able to return to VFL action late last year and has steadily improved this season and last week gathered 29 possessions.

The Tigers also gave much-maligned pair Richard Tambling and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls another opportunity while ruckman Adam Pattison was also recalled as Nathan Brown was ruled out through injury and veteran Troy Simmonds was dropped, along with youngsters Tom Hislop and Daniel Connors.

North welcomed back suspended forward Aaron Edwards for the first time this season but lost star goalsneak Matt Campbell to a hamstring injury while first gamer Levi Greenwood is in for Josh Smith.

Meanwhile, Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse declared veteran forward Anthony Rocca is not a certain starter for Saturday's traditional Anzac Day clash against Essendon even though the Pies made no change to their team on Thursday night.

Rocca, who last week played his first game since Round 13 following a serious foot injury, copped another heavy knock in his comeback game against Brisbane and Malthouse wants to see how his oldest player trains on Friday before guaranteeing him a start in the AFL's biggest home and away game.

"In one of the bumps last week he injured himself and we have got to take that into consideration," Malthouse said.

"The other thing is we knew that by playing him last week he may not be able to come up this week."

Essendon made five changes after its loss to North with Darcy Daniher (groin) and Hayden Skipworth (hamstring) out through injury and Michael Quinn, Jay Nash, Ricky Dyson all dropped with Nathan Lovett-Murray, Sam Lonergan, David Myers, Heath Hocking and Leroy Jetta the inclusions.

Port Adelaide regained skipper Domenic Cassisi and Nick Lower for Friday night's clash against St Kilda but remain without the Burgoyne brothers Peter and Shaun due to suspension and injury respectively.

St Kilda chose not to pick Matt Maguire for his long-awaited comeback instead replacing the injured Justin Koschitzke with Robert Eddy.

Geelong has regained Darren Milburn from a back injury but has lost star tagger Cameron Ling for several weeks with an Achilles injury ahead of Sunday's home game against Brisbane, which will be without its two leading ruckmen due to injury in Jamie Charman and Matthew Leuenberger.

The Dogs regained Robert Murphy for his first game since off-season knee surgery but will again be without injured Brownlow Medalist Adam Cooney for Sunday's game against Carlton as they also named two first gamers in Jarrad Grant and Guy O'Keefe in their 25 man squad.

Carlton welcomed back 2007 best and fairest winner Andrew Carrazzo following a broken arm in pre-season as well as defender Michael Jamison from a shoulder injury while Heath Scotland was also named in the 25.

Hawthorn will now be without five members of last year's premiership winning defence with Brent Guerra (hamstring) joining Grant Birchall, Trent Croad, Rick Ladson, and Stephen Gilham on the sidelines as Travis Tuck returns to the team.

West Coast bought Sam Butler in for Chris Masten.