Boom recruit Jesse Hogan is firming for a round one Fremantle debut after stepping up his training load this week, but the Dockers are retaining a cautious outlook with their prize signing.

On the comeback from a serious foot injury, Hogan joined in full competitive training for nearly two hours in scorching conditions at the Dockers’ Cockburn base on Friday.

The 23-year-old former Melbourne star then sat out of a 30-minute full ground match simulation exercise which finished the gruelling session. Hogan has seven weeks until Fremantle meet North Melbourne in their season-opener at Optus Stadium on March 24.

After years of chasing tall forwards, the Dockers showed off their new triple-threat aerial weapons in attack as Hogan combined with fellow recruit Rory Lobb and the improving Matt Taberner.

Balls were kicked in high to the power forwards competing one-on-one with defenders Alex Pearce and Griffin Logue.

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Pearce predicted Hogan would be a “huge” addition.

“He’s definitely very tough to play on. You can tell the class when he comes in and starts playing, how sort of physical and aggressive he is,” Pearce said.

“He’s a bit of a quiet guy off the field, but when you get him out there in that physical environment that competitive nature comes out in him.

“He’s quite quick and agile for a bloke of his size and strength. You can just tell he is going to be really huge for us moving forward.”

Pearce believed the different attributes of Hogan, Lobb and Taberner meant they could play in the same forward line.

“I think they all complement each other quite well. It’s shaping like a really dangerous forward line,” he said.

Camera Icon Jesse Hogan with Alex Pearce at Dockers training. Credit: Ian Munro / Twitter / Fremantle Dockers

“Tabs is a huge runner and obviously very strong one-on-one. And Lobby you can see when he flies and gets his hands up, there’s not really anyone in the competition who can stop him because he’s just so long.”

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon would not put a time frame on Hogan’s return due to the complicated nature of navicular stress fractures.

“It’s a very serious injury and I've said to Jesse, ‘When you're right, you'll play’,” Lyon told the AFL website.

“If that’s round 10, he'll play round 10. If it’s round 18, if it’s round one, if it’s JLT (that’s when he’ll play).

“It can change so quickly on the positive or the negative side and I don’t get caught up on it. But he’s progressing really well, so that’s all we can ask. He’s come in and he trains hard, he’s going quite well.”

Lyon ruled midfielder Stephen Hill (quad) out of the start of the season and conceded he was “nervous” about the team’s midfield after injuries to Hill and Connor Blakely (hamstring tendon).

“I’m a bit nervous about that for our midfield because it’s the area where we lost Lachie Neale (to Brisbane),” Lyon said.

“Stephen won't be back until about round three, which really does hurt us.”