It’s been a long-time coming, but Ben Jacobs is finally getting back on his feet after two injury plagued seasons.

On Australia Day, the midfielder was given the green light to participate in match simulation for a half, and he revelled in the opportunity to be back out on the park with his mates.

“I was more excited than nervous to be honest,” Jacobs told North Media.

“It was good to go through the motions again. The pre-game … waking up and thinking, ‘what do I eat on game day?’, stuff like that. It’s good.”

Normally deployed as a damaging tagger, Jacobs was given free rein on this occasion and instead of focussing on an opponent, he just racked up the miles and put his foot to the test.

“Maybe some stoppages, maybe lock onto someone for five minutes.  Just see how I feel. You know, just feel comfortable out there first,” he said.

In one sequence of play, he sprinted from one end of the ground to the other to get on the end of the footy, and showed no signs of the injuries that have plagued him for the past two seasons.

“My foot feels good … to be honest I didn’t even feel it at all out there,” Jacobs said after the match.

“It’s great to tick another box.”

Stay tuned for the video, featuring vision of Jacobs' return to match simulation.