PORT Adelaide's Jake Neade said it was like being told he was making his debut all over again when the coach said he had been picked to play against Melbourne at Alice Springs on Saturday.
Hailing from Elliott, a town midway between Darwin and Alice Springs, Neade has not played a game in 2014 after playing 16 games in his first season last year.
So for his opportunity to come in the first game for premiership points at Alice Springs made some of the wait worth it.
"It was like I was playing my first game again you know, coming back home. I played here last year in the pre-season but that wasn't for points," Neade said. "It's the real deal now and it would be good to get the four points."
The exciting small forward, who turned 20 on Thursday, has had to work hard to gain a spot in Port Adelaide's winning line-up.
It has, he said, created some pressure and left him feeling nervous ahead of Saturday's game at Traeger Park.
"The team has been going pretty well. It's pretty hard getting a game in the last couple of months with the team going well but I have got my chance now and I have just got to do what my coach told me and play my role and see what happens from there," Neade said.
Both Neade and teammate Jarman Impey are excited to be representing Port Adelaide during Indigenous Round.
Impey, 19, hails from Shepparton in Victoria and has made every post a winner in his first season. He earned a NAB Rising Star nomination after round eight but he is far from getting ahead of himself.
"[I've] just had a crack really," Impey said.
Impey, who has held down a defensive post with aplomb, said there was a chance he would play on Melbourne's Jay Kennedy-Harris.
"We're pretty good mates, so it will be a good match-up," Impey said.
He expects Melbourne to provide solid opposition.
"[I] reckon it is going to be a very tough game. It will be a fight all day," Impey said. "They are very good defensively."
