PERTH- He's arrived with the bad boy reputation but former Gold Coast midfielder Harley Bennell has made a good early impression at Fremantle.

Bennell started preseason training sooner than expected, taking part in his first Dockers session on Monday as the club's first to fourth-year players were put through their paces at Fremantle Oval.

The 23-year-old hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last season when pictures emerged of him allegedly racking up lines of white powder on a hotel desk.

Gold Coast gave Bennell another chance to atone for his off-field misadventure but finally lost patience when he was charged with disorderly behaviour after a cigarette was slapped from the mouth of a bouncer outside a nightclub in September.