"IÂ am cancer-free, and that's what you wanted to hear."
Yes it is. It's all anyone wants to hear of anyone footballer or philatelist, but as a high-profile footballer there is a sense of connection that makes the words especially comforting.
![Having his life back as he knew it: Jarryd Roughead has been given the all-clear in relation to his cancer.](/web/20170425122845im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/5/b/a/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt5d3x.png/1481019748402.jpg)
More importantly for Jarryd Roughead he is now once more Jarryd Roughead the footballer.
It is difficult to look at Jarryd Roughead quite the same way knowing what he has been through but now we look at him once more as first and foremost a footballer not a cancer patient (though cancer survivor has an agreeable ring to it.)
This is how Roughead wanted it. Cancer did not kill him, nor define him. He is now able to resume a normal life and for him normality is playing AFL football.
He will never view football as the most important thing in his life, as he once did, but to be able to play again means having his life back as he knew it.
His doctor considers his punishing treatment will provide no impediment to him doing that.
Now he resumes training, returning to attending to the reconstructed PCL that was neglected while he worked on killing the cancer.
![Jarryd Roughead](/web/20170425122845im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/8/h/h/l/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gt5d3x.png/1481019748402.jpg)
He does not want to put a date on a return to the team lest he muck up his timing and build expectation prematurely (though privately he'd admit round one would be nice).
That is life-changing news for Roughead and heart-warming for football and Hawthorn, but it is also potentially season-changing for Hawthorn.
There is a caveat on what can be expected of a player who has come through what Roughead has come through. Putting aside even the impact of the cancer treatment he has not played since 2015 and had a PCL reconstruction.
Yet still the idea of a fit Roughead back in Hawthorn's side alters the image of a side that had jettisoned his two premiership teammates Sam Mitchell and close friend Jordan Lewis.
These unemotional moves combined with the recruiting of Jaegar O'Meara and Tom Mitchell in a bold attempt to expedite the rejuvenation of a creaking midfield.
O'Meara is slightly speculative – albeit Hawthorn is bullish of his prospects – for he has missed as many games as he has played since he debuted. He is a star but has not played for two years.
The arrival of free agent Ty Vickery provided Hawthorn with the marking forward who plays his best football from the goal square thus liberating Jack Gunston.
But Roughead coming back into the side more fundamentally than any of these new arrivals alters the idea of the possibilities for Hawthorn to contend again.
Again, his doctor has said the disease and its treatment should now provide no hindrance to his return to AFL football so assuming he can recover the fitness he needs and the touch and form then he provides Hawthorn with a more damaging makeup.
Whether his fitness after not touching a ball or taking a bump for seven months can be built to allow him to once more take a turn in the centre square as well as the goal square would as much as Mitchell and O'Meara alter the look of the Hawks set up.
Vickery looks a better pick up instantly with Roughead coming in. Vickery plays best as a marking target and has played best when playing deep and isolated. Covering the ground has not been his greatest asset but it has been one of Roughead's and Gunston's.
Whether it is about what is possible next year or after that Roughead has altered the idea of what is achievable at Hawthorn.