JONATHON Patton will step up his recovery from long-term injury by taking part in Greater Western Sydney's intra-club match on Wednesday afternoon.
Patton, the No.1 pick from the 2011 NAB AFL Draft, has been sidelined since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament early in last year's round three match against St Kilda.
The 20-year-old has undertaken a very deliberate and cautious rehabilitation program and managed to get through some competitive work last week and will take a further step forward at Tom Wills Oval.
"Jon is coming back from that long-term injury," GWS coach Leon Cameron said.
"He played a couple of quarters last Friday, but he'll roll out tomorrow and it's great for Jon in his progression back into AFL football to see him play three-to-four quarters."
Patton has managed just 10 games in his first two years, with a separate knee injury restricting him to seven appearances in his rookie year.
He will be competing alongside All Australian Jeremy Cameron and the club's latest No.1 draft pick Tom Boyd in a stacked GWS forward line.
Big-name recruits Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw and Josh Hunt will also compete in the scratch match and Cameron is keen to see how his new-look group performs.
"The expectation among our playing group is we're ready for 2014," Cameron declared.
"We're looking forward to rolling out tomorrow in our intra-club practice match and spots are going to be tough to win.
"When you've got players vying for spots, it makes for a very, very competitive performance come game day."
The intra-club match will be followed by the Giants' opening NAB Challenge fixture against the Sydney Swans in Canberra next week before they close out the pre-season against St Kilda and Adelaide.
Callan Ward, who was re-appointed GWS co-captain on Tuesday alongside Phil Davis, told AFL.com.au the playing group can't wait to put what it has been learning into practice.
"The intra-club is going to be a great test to see where we're at," he said.
"Obviously match fitness is a whole different level to pre-season training, so it's an important part of the year.
"Then we've got the three NAB Challenge games. We speak all pre-season about game plans and structures, this is the time to do it and it's great preparation for the new season."
