He was gone almost as quickly as he came.

Marcus Adams was drafted as a mature age defender out of West Perth in 2015 and became a fixture of the Bulldogs back six early in the season before injury struck and he was not seen again after Round 16.

Adams ranked third among key defenders for contested marks in his debut season, and there he was again, two minutes into his 2017 season, out-positioning the dangerous Sam Reid to halt an early Sydney surge.

It was like he’d never left.

Adams finished Friday’s game with 20 possessions, including 13 contested, seven marks and five tackles; a performance coach Luke Beveridge described as ‘commanding.’

“To be out of the AFL game for as long as he has - still very inexperienced – he was a pretty commanding player on Friday night, Beveridge said.

“On the back of about a month and a half of building up to that at VFL level it was great for us to see that.”

It was a fair welcoming party for the 23-year-old out in the middle too, with Adams’ standing Reid and Lance Franklin for a combined 88 minutes according to Champion Data.

With veteran defender Dale Morris expected to be on the sidelines for some time yet, Beveridge was pleased to have ‘The Specimen’ patrolling the back half again.

“When you think he replaced Dale (Morris) who’s been such a great player for us, that performance was on the edge, it was really good.”