Harley Bennell is back up and running and it is time to fast-track his return to the top level.

Normally caution would be the order of the day for a talented 26-year-old with a terrible injury history.

The Bennell saga has gone well past a normal situation. There is nothing left here for anyone to lose.

Two games in three seasons would usually be enough to see any player shown the door. The Dockers accepted that the former Gold Coast player’s recruitment had been a bust, so what harm would there be in continuing for another year in the hope of some belated return on investment?

He was given a one-year contract extension to play for Fremantle, not Peel.

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If Bennell isn’t brought in for the Dockers’ daunting clash with Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday then Fremantle’s next game, against Port Adelaide at home in round 13 following their bye, should be circled.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction to Bennell’s encouraging 30-disposal, two-goal return for the Thunder in the WAFL on Saturday. The same view would hold if he had gathered 15 touches and kicked no goals.

Caution has been the way until now and it’s delivered a grand total of two games in three three-and-a-half seasons.

Whole seasons can disappear when the circumspect approach is always taken and they have done as far as the silky-skilled midfielder is concerned.

There’s a bigger picture to contemplate here as well and Bennell’s welfare needs to be a consideration. Club management needs to have one plan for things working out for Bennell this season and another for if they don’t.

An AFL appearance for the first time in 21 months could give him a powerful sense of satisfaction and achievement that might stand him in good stead for his transition out of the AFL system if that is the way it goes.

The Dockers should allow him that chance while it’s here. Every game he plays in the WAFL may assist with conditioning, but it is also another chance for something to go horribly wrong. There is every chance of Bennell breaking down again this season. Should that happen, it’s better it’s on an AFL field rather than down in Mandurah playing for Peel.

He has by no means been a poster boy for off-field professionalism, but he’s withstood an awful lot and for getting his body to this point again he deserves the chance to climb the summit that an AFL return represents.

Bennell was recruited at the end of the 2015 season after the Dockers had spent 20 consecutive weeks on top of the ladder and claimed the minor premiership before crashing out in a preliminary final to Hawthorn.

He was brought in to take them to a premiership. Instead, he’s been to hell and back and essentially missed an entire rebuild.

It’s not realistic to expect Bennell to be a star at senior level after what he’s been through. But if he could become a role player and simply hold his place in Fremantle’s best 22, that would be a remarkable story in itself.