After waiting one day short of a year between singing the Freo song with his teammates, midfielder Mitch Crowden celebrated his return to football in style with two goals in Fremantle’s 12-point win against Collingwood at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Crowden last played for Freo in round one of the 2020 season but last played in a win against Geelong on 3 August 2019.

After impressing in Freo’s recent scratch matches for non-selected players, the 21-year-old justified his selection with two crucial second half goals as Freo held off the Pies in an exciting encounter.

After a disappointing loss in round eight against Geelong, Crowden praised Freo’s hunger to bounce back.

“It feels absolutely unreal. We set ourselves for a big one this week and all the boys had a really good game, they brought the effort, brought our structure and it was really rewarding,” Crowden said.

“JL (senior coach Justin Longmuir) said that the first three quarters, we played well, our structure was right. That last five minutes in the third quarter we let them go a bit, but other than that, we were just fierce.

“The whole game, playing to our structure, our effort, it got us the win.”

The two goals made the win even better for Crowden.

"It’s been pretty hard to get back in the side but really grateful to get an opportunity tonight,” Crowden said.

“To kick a couple goals, that’s the cherry on top.”

Crowden was thrilled to get the win in teammate Adam Cerra’s 50th game.

Cerra raced to the 50-game milestone after debuting in the same game as Crowden against Essendon in round two, 2018.

“Cez has been unreal from day dot,” Crowden said.

“We debuted together, we’ve been on the ride the whole way along and to see him get 50 already, there’s going to be a lot more to come and that’s really exciting.”