Sitting in the coach's box on Saturday night, I was told pretty swiftly by the coaches to mellow myself down after Nic kicked the first of his three electrifying goals.
It was impossible not to just go along with the crowd and get very excited by what he delivered in that 15-minute period – the pressure he put the Hawthorn backs under, or anyone who had the football, was unbelievable.
He brings a freakish talent to our football club and we started to see it as soon as he started training.
He can sit on someone's shoulders, he can probably jump over his opponent's head in ruck contests and he's lightning quick over 20m – he's like a lion or a cheetah, the way he pounces on opposition players when they have the ball.
Then, of course, there's the height and dreadlocks that have made him a cult hero.
There was obviously hype surrounding him being the No.2 draft pick and wearing the No.9, but he's taken all of that in his stride. He's just an incredibly humble, smart young man.
Fans are always going to be interested in a prized draft pick, as are those inside the club. You look at Melbourne with Jack Watts and we've done it with Chris Judd at No.3 in the past as well.
The expectation excites the club and the fans but now we've just got to realise he's in just his second game and has still got so much to learn.
Luckily, the best thing about Nic is his willingness to learn. He's always trying to improve himself as a footballer and he realises where he's at individually as a player.
I'll spend a bit of time with Nic during the week, reviewing the weekend's game and then turning to our next opponents.
Being the senior ruckman and a vice captain there's certainly responsibility there for me, and I enjoy trying to have as much influence on the young guys as I can. I probably look a little closer at Nic and his development as a ruckman.
I'll just pass on ideas that I have, and seeing as I've played on all of the guys he's going to come up against for a while now, I can pass on hints and give him as much advice as I can.
But I've picked up pretty quickly that he's keen to learn and willing to sacrifice everything to do his best for the football side.
He's already shown plenty of development on the track and you can see now when he comes into the ruck that his tap-work has been really good.
So he's starting to build a relationship with a lot of the midfielders about what he does and what they do in certain situations.
Like a lot of our young guys at West Coast, he's also shown leadership qualities and great character off the field.
Luke Shuey, Scott Selwood and Brad Ebert are just three guys I could name, but when it's time for us senior guys to hang the boots up, we'll be more than comfortable letting those guys take over.
Nic is an amazing young man, and he will no doubt be a leader at our club. He's very level-headed and he's got a hunger to succeed at this level.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
