JAEGER O'Meara is firming to make his club debut for Hawthorn in round one after getting through his second match in nine days, against North Melbourne at Arden St Oval on Sunday.
The former Gold Coast midfielder has not played a home and away game since round 23, 2014, having been sidelined since rupturing a patella tendon in a NEAFL practice match in April 2015.
O'Meara played half a game in Hawthorn's round one JLT Community Series win over Geelong and upped that to 81 per cent game time against North, racking up 22 possessions, seven clearances and a goal.
NM v Haw: Full match coverage and stats
Hawthorn assistant coach Cameron Bruce told reporters his gut feel was O'Meara would be fit for the Hawks' round one clash against Essendon.
"He's performing well throughout the games and throughout the week. It's a credit to the fitness staff and the conditioning staff to get him into a condition where he's really confident with his body and confident that he can get through solid hit-outs," Bruce said.
"We'll just continue with that path, we've put a path in place that we want Jaeger to stay on over this period up until round one and hopefully that will see that he's ready to go."
Asked whether O'Meara's progress this pre-season had been pleasantly surprising, Bruce said it had gone according to the club's expectations and the program it had put in place for him.
Midfielder Will Langford and key defender James Frawley copped head knocks during Sunday's game that saw them play no further part in the match.
Langford was on the end of some friendly fire when he ran into teammate Luke Breust in the second quarter, while Frawley was accidentally collected by Lindsay Thomas as the Kangaroo flew for a mark in the third term.
Bruce said both players could have come back on the ground, but the Hawks had opted to take no chances.
"(Frawley) is fine, (taking him off was) just precautionary, part of his management. He's a tough fella, so he expects to get that every week," Bruce said.
"(Langford) has pulled up pretty well. He obviously got a bit more of a serious knock than James, but again (it was) part of our management and this time of year it was not worth throwing him out there."
14 disposals in just over a quarter and now this! Jaeger O'Meara is tearing it up #JLTSeries pic.twitter.com/eqjOcjushW
— AFL (@AFL) February 26, 2017