"This opportunity means the world to me."

Settling In

The last few weeks have been awesome; I’m having so much fun.

The nerves are starting to settle now but the first time I came to the club I was nervous.

There were a few familiar faces as I’d been up in Sydney with the squad, so that was helpful to come into Moorabbin knowing most of the blokes.

SA to NSW to VIC

Initially the plan was to stay in Adelaide for two-three more weeks potentially, just until the boys got back to Melbourne.

I was set to play a few more games with the Eagles, but I got one game in and the day after Gags (James Gallagher) rang me and said ‘we’re going to put you on a flight to Sydney tomorrow to come and join the boys.’

That was a bit of a whirlwind, it happened pretty quickly and was quite unexpected but it was a great week.

When I got there and walked straight into the team meeting I had to introduce and talk about myself which was a bit nerve wracking and put me on the spot, but it was good getting that out of the road quickly.

All the blokes were awesome, introduced themselves and it was a great week to be up there with most of the squad, all of us together, it was an awesome introduction to the club.

Starting Mid-Season

You are thrown sort of in the deep end with everyone playing games. It’s not pre-season where you’re leading up to it and you’ve got a few months to prepare.

When I got to Sydney we were coming off a few losses and poor performances that we didn’t want to continue with, so there were a few meetings around that and how we could bridge the gap to be a better team and how we were going to improve in back half of the season.

It was really interesting to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes and the impact that has on the field. A couple of wins has helped us and we're heading in a good direction.

Adjusting to AFL life

I’m living with Mason Wood, so he’s looking after me outside of the club as well as inside, making sure I’m doing everything right as an AFL footballer and putting all the hard work in.

Tom Highmore, Matt Allison and a couple of other new blokes at the club were keen to have some newer and younger blokes in Max Heath and myself, so they’ve also been awesome helping me out.

Putting my best foot forward

This opportunity means the world to me.

It’s probably come a little later than I would’ve liked, a couple of years ago I thought it was going to happen, thought I was going to get picked up and I wasn’t.

But that’s just made this all so much sweeter - to finally be here and to be made to work for that chance.

I’m going to make sure to put my best foot forward.