He's fighting fit and in the middle of a second consecutive pre-season untroubled by the knee injuries that threatened to ruin his career in the years following his No.1 draft selection.

There's a heartbreaking preliminary final loss against the Western Bulldogs to draw inspiration from, a defeat that has been bubbling away subconsciously at GWS over the summer.

And Patton will enter 2017 after playing all but one game in the club's breakout 2016 season; he missed round one against Melbourne when coach Leon Cameron opted to play him in the reserves.

That was after a frank discussion with the coach roughly 12 months ago when Patton was told it was time he stood up and delivered on the skill and potential for which he was drafted.

He had his best year in 2016, booting 38 goals in a dangerous forward line where Jeremy Cameron (53), best and fairest Toby Greene (44) and Steve Johnson (43) were also productive.

Now the discussions with coach Cameron are about building on last season and taking his game to the next level.

"It's just mostly been about continuing to improve and just to be on top of everything and do the little things really well," Patton said.

"I was happy with the way I performed in the second half of the year [in 2016], I was just getting a lot more confident. All the other forwards were working well together, which showed on the field.

"Now there's no excuses ... it's all about winning and playing well.

"Everyone wants to take their game to the next level and that's what pre-season is for. Trying really hard, improving my game in different aspects, that's definitely something that I want to do this year."

There's an excellent vibe around the Giants, as there is with every AFL club at this time of year. But you get the feeling things are a little bit different in Sydney's west than at the other 17 clubs.

After three years of humiliating results, the Giants proved they belonged among the AFL's elite in 2015.

Last season the premiership window started to creak open and come the end of the season, following the six-point loss to the Bulldogs in the preliminary final, Greene toasted his Kevin Sheedy medal by saying anything short of a grand final win in 2017 would be a failure.

Patton has noticed a significant shift in culture at the club since he was drafted in late 2011, and now there's a preliminary final reference point to underpin this year's title push.

"It was a very tough loss, that's something that we looked back at, at the start of pre-season," Patton said.

"Looking back now, it taught us a lot of lessons and how much the little things matter in a football game.

"It is a bit of extra motivation just seeing what the Doggies did on grand final day, them only beating us by a goal. You always look back and think, 'what if?'

"Everyone's getting through pre-season as best they can, but at the same time, now we know that we can match it with anyone now.

"It's all about fixing up little things with our game that cost us in the prelim with the Bulldogs and everyone's belief now is that we can make this year however we want to make it."