Influential midfielder Tom Liberatore has wasted no time in making his presence felt after successfully returning from his second ACL reconstruction.

The 26-year-old played a huge role in the Western Bulldogs’ season-opening win against Sydney, collecting 28 disposals.

It was his first AFL match since sustaining the injury in the early stages of round one last year.

“It means everything to me,” Liberatore told westernbulldogs.com.au on being back playing footy.

“Having the year off certainly brought back some of that passion.

“Coming back together (with the guys) on the weekend and being able to play in a win, that feeling after a win you can’t really match it.”

As a premiership player and Club best and fairest – balanced with missing two of the past four seasons through knee injuries – Liberatore has certainly experienced the ups and down of professional sport.

He acknowledged there were ‘weeks and months’ that were hard to push through in his recovery.

After playing in both JLT Community Series matches, there were still nerves heading into round one, but a feeling that he was well prepared.

 “I’m feeling really good – I pulled up really well after a couple of runs in JLT, I’m feeling positive and as a group as well,” Liberatore said.

 “I think we’ve made quite a strong start to the season in terms of our energy and positive brand of football. It’s good to get off to such an enthusiastic start.

“There was a few nerves leading up, naturally when you get a bit of down time.

 “But once the game started and I got into the flow of it, it felt a bit more natural. The first 10 minutes were difficult as always, like any other match.

“That was probably the hardest, the first five minutes coming back into it, but once the game went on I felt more comfortable.”