The Bombers and the Borough will meet at Port Melbourne’s TEAC Oval in round 13 of the VFL season.

Cousins is eligible to play for Port Melbourne after his registration was completed on Monday.

However, the former West Coast Eagles captain, who was last year deregistered by the AFL for 12 months for bringing the game into disrepute, won’t be making his VFL debut for the Borough against Bendigo.

"It’s no go for this week," Port Melbourne coach Gary Ayres told The Advertiser yesterday.

"He has registered with us and at the minute, that’s where it’s at.

"All we’re doing is going to be waiting to see what happens, but you and I have more chance of winning Tattslotto than Ben running out for us this week."

Ayres is in his first season as Borough coach having spent the previous two years as an assistant to Kevin Sheedy at Essendon, Bendigo’s aligned AFL club.

Asked if his recent involvement with Essendon would help him prepare for this week, Ayres answered: "Not really, because if you went through the list at Essendon there has been quite a bit of change.

"The guys like Scott Camporeale, Chris Heffernan and Kepler Bradley who played a fair bit last year (for Bendigo) are no longer at Essendon.

"And you don’t really know what is coming through from the Bendigo end."

Ayres presently has Port Melbourne in a strong position to secure a double chance.

The Borough sits in fourth position on the ladder, two games clear of the fifth-placed Sandringham.

But Ayres won’t be under-estimating the Bombers, who, despite their 11th position on the ladder, have been competitive with top-three sides North Ballarat and the Casey Scorpions in the past two weeks.

"Bendigo’s form is probably mirroring that of what Essendon is doing at the moment," Ayres said.

"They have certainly improved, and even last week against Casey it was only the first quarter that proved to be the difference in the end.

"Every week is a danger game for us, and I have been around too long to know you can’t go into a match and feel quite comfortable.

"But as long as you believe in your team, your philosophies and your gameplan and the players go out and execute it... we obviously want to win every game we play in.

"And being a stand-alone club, there’s a lot of pressure for us to keep standing up because we don’t have that luxury of half-a-dozen (AFL-listed) players coming back every week."

Saturday’s game starts at 1.10 pm and will be broadcast on ABC TV.