What is it prefer to go from an AFL fan to an AFL participant in simply a few days? None of us will ever actually know — however Ryan Maric does.
The new West Coast ahead, who was taken with the primary choose in final week’s mid-season rookie draft, had about 24 hours to get from Melbourne — the place he labored stacking cabinets at a Woolworths — to the opposite facet of the nation.
Before he was met on the airport in heart-warming scenes by the membership’s different first-year gamers, Maric had by no means set foot in Perth. Within simply a few days he was enjoying for Eagles within the WAFL.
The 18-year-old admitted to nonetheless being star-struck by his new teammates as he will get caught into his first full week of coaching.
“Meeting all the players is just like — I sort of watched them growing up and a lot of them have been in my SuperCoach team that I’ve been barracking for for the past couple of years,” Maric instructed the membership’s web site.
“I sort of just catch myself looking at them, like seeing if they’re even real some of them. It’s crazy.
“The facilities are unreal. I thought Gippsland Power facilities were unreal and then coming in, it’s like 10 times the size.”
Maric additionally stated he’d been fast to make robust connections with the crop of West Coast’s first-year expertise that met him on the airport final week.
“It’s good that the first-year boys came down to meet me, it’s pretty welcoming when you’ve got people your age who have been through the same thing only six months ago.
“So that was pretty good for them to come down, which was nice, and we’re sort of already building a pretty strong connection with some of them straight away.
The forward capped off a whirlwind week with a goal and five disposals — albeit with limited supply — in the club’s loss to Swan Districts on Sunday.
“It was nice to start well, I sort of got my hands on it a bit in that first quarter and then didn’t really see much of it the rest of the game,” Maric stated.
“I probably didn’t prepare as well for the game as I’ve got all this background stuff going on, but it was just fun to run out there I guess and sort of make a few connections with the WAFL boys as well.
“Hopefully now, full week on the training track I can prepare a bit better.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
