FOUR years after he was left concussed by a violent assault, Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury has backed teammate Marley Williams to resume playing after the defender was convicted of grievous bodily harm last week.

Williams was left out of the Collingwood team that lost to Richmond last Saturday – just two days after his conviction – but he is expected to play in this weekend's practice match against the Suns at Metricon Stadium.

"We fully support Marley with everything that's going on at the moment," Pendlebury said as he and the Magpies started a five-day training camp on the Gold Coast. 

Williams, 20, will be sentenced in April after he was found guilty of grievous bodily harm for breaking a man's jaw with a single punch outside a nightclub in Albany, Western Australia in December 2012. 

He faces a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in jail. 

Pendlebury himself was the victim of a violent attack in Lakes Entrance in 2009 that left him concussed and bloodied. Charges were laid by Lakes Entrance police in the days following the incident but were withdrawn months later after further investigation. 

When questioned about his own experience and whether it was a good look for the Pies to select Williams after he had been found guilty, Pendlebury reiterated his earlier comments.

"I can't talk about what's happening in his case, but as I said, we're fully supporting Marley as a football club," he said.

"I think the media, you guys will be talking about it a fair bit. I feel like a broken record but we support Marls and we're just looking for a good week on the track up here."

Pendlebury said Williams had been holding up well in the past few days.

Collingwood trained at the Southport Sharks club on Wednesday morning ahead of Sunday's game against the Suns.

The new Magpies skipper said travelling to the Gold Coast was a great opportunity to spend some time away together and bed down their game plan for the coming season.

"It's only early in the year and we've shown little patches of that (good football) and we've also shown what happens when we're not fully switched on. 

"We're just looking to get a four-quarter performance together."