Greater Western Sydney’s No.1 draft pick Jonathon Patton appears to have overcome an unexpected final injury hurdle ahead of his long-awaited AFL debut.
The 19-year-old key forward is listed to play against Richmond at Sydney Showground Stadium on Saturday after having the start of his senior career delayed by knee surgery in Sweden last January.
Patton sent a scare through observers at training on Wednesday, as he limped off the ground shortly before the end of the session.
Onlookers initially feared the problem might have been the left knee that was operated on.
He quickly applied an ice pack to his left thigh, but Patton and assistant coach Mark Williams were adamant it was just a minor cork.
Club officials later confirmed that was the case and said Patton would definitely play on Saturday.
It was a tough day for all three of the Giants key forwards paraded before the media prior to training.
Israel Folau, who has just come back from a hamstring strain, didn’t train and coach Kevin Sheedy said the league convert would have a fitness test on Saturday morning.
Sheedy rated Folau’s prospects as 80-20.
Leading goalkicker and Rising Star nominee Jeremy Cameron finished the session with a bloodied nose.
Even before his mishap, Patton was anticipating a tough initiation against the Tigers, whom he expects to target him on debut.
“Of course they are always going to rough up the new kid on the block,” Patton told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m looking forward to that and looking forward to the challenge.”
He wasn’t fussed about trying to rack up stats.
“I’m not worried about how many kicks or goals or marks I get, I just want to go out there and have a bit of a run around and get a bit of a taste of AFL footy,” Patton said.
Patton believes his belated start and being based in Sydney has helped him avoid the intense scrutiny applied to previous top draft picks.
“Especially being in Sydney, that’s been pretty helpful,” Patton said.
“If you look at Jack Watts and Tom Scully when they were in Melbourne, they had heaps of scrutiny over them.”
Patton said he would have a chat this week with good friend and Giants teammate Scully, who was taken at No.1 by the Demons in the 2009 draft.
He was sanguine about the long wait to make his senior debut.
“It’s definitely been frustrating, but what can you do?,” Patton said.
“The boys have been extremely good the first 10 or 11 weeks, so I’m just trying to get back into the side and make some sort of impact.”
Folau said Patton’s emergence would take a lot of pressure off him.