The Temora product was captain of the Toronto Wolfpack in their first season in the English Super League and played alongside Sonny Bill Williams in 2020.

However after they withdrew from the competition due to the impact of COVID-19 the 33-year-old is currently in hotel quarantine with his young family and will link with the Cherrypickers for the last three games of the Group Nine season.

McCrone's first game will be against Kangaroos next Saturday and playing all three will qualify McCrone to play finals should Young secure their spot.

While he is looking forward to being able to play football again, the move is about much more than that.

"The way 2020 was panning out as a whole, not just with the Super League, it was important to bring the family home," McCrone said.

"Getting back home there was a good opportunity at Young."

It has been 15 years since McCrone last played in Group Nine.

The playmaker made his debut for Canberra in 2009 and went on to play 133 games for the club.

In his nine years in the capital McCrone also represented Country three times before shifting to St George Illawarra in 2016.

He played 28 games for the Dragons before spending the last three seasons with Toronto.

The irony of lining up for the 'Pickers isn't lost on him.

"The last game I played in Group Nine I got beat my Young in under 18s grand final for Temora," McCrone said.

"I would have loved to have played for (the Dragons) but it is a good opportunity that has arisen at Young."

It will be quite the journey back to Temora for McCrone, his wife Courtney and their three children aged under seven.

After leaving their home in Manchester, they've just started their second week of quarantine in Adelaide but with the NSW-Victoria border closed they will have to drive back to the Riverina via Broken Hill.

It will add another 440 kilometres to what will now be 14 hours on the road.

"We did have flights booked to Sydney but kept getting delayed with the new restrictions they've been bringing in with limited numbers of each flight and we got to the stage where we didn't care where we went in Australia we just wanted to get to Australia and work it out from there," McCrone said.

"Adelaide is not too bad but not being able to drive through Victoria is going to add an extra six hours on the trip but we'll go up and see Broken Hill.

"It wasn't on the bucket list but we might stop for a parmi."

With Temora not taking part in the Group Nine season, the chance to link with former Raiders teammate Joe Picker was another incentive to link with Young.

"Joey Picker is one of my best mates and I've always wanted to play with him again," McCrone said.

"We've talked about playing together again before we both finish for good so everything has fallen into line."

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