Patten played in the famous 1999 Grand Final between the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Melbourne Storm played in front of a record crowd of 108,000 people at the Homebush Olympic Stadium.
In 2001, he joined the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and quickly made the fullback position his own. In 2004 he played in every game of the Canterbury-Bankstown premiership winning season which finished with a 16–13 victory Grand Final win over the Sydney Roosters.
A two-time winner of the clubs best and fairest in 2006 & 2007, Patten became the club's heart and soul. A back injury ended his 2008 campaign but he returned in 2009 to help a rejuvenated club reach the preliminary final against the Parramatta Eels. Unfortunately he copped a head knock early in the game in a huge blow to the Bulldogs hopes.
At the end of the 2010 NRL season he signed a 3-year deal to join the Salford City Reds in the English Super League. In his last season for the club (2012) he was voted the clubs best and fairest.
Upon returning to Australia in 2013 he joined the NRL match officials as a video referee. In all he officiated in over 400 first class games before leaving the role.
An Illawarra junior, Patten acquired the nickname "General" because of his surname's similarity to that of General Patton.
Patten made his first grade debut for Illawarra in round 3 of the 1998 NRL season against Newcastle at WIN Stadium. Patten played in Illawarra's final game as a stand-alone entity when they played against Canterbury-Bankstown in round 24 1998 at WIN Stadium. Patten scored two tries in a 25–24 loss. At the end of 1998, Illawarra formed a joint-venture partnership with St. George to become St. George Illawarra.
On 27 July 2010 it was confirmed that Patten would be moving to the Super League, linking up with English club Salford City Reds for 3 years from the 2011 season.[3]
Patten first showed interest in becoming a referee in 2011.[6] In 2013 he became the first ex-player from the NRL era to officiate in a first grade grand final when he served as video referee for the 2013 NRL Grand Final.[7]