He has had his first taste of senior football and Gold Coast draftee Matthew Rowell admits it is proving hard not to dream about an AFL debut next month.
Rowell and fellow top draft pick Noah Anderson both played in a scratch match for the Suns against Brisbane at Metricon Stadium last weekend.
The pair have been named along with another draftee, Jeremy Sharp, in the Gold Coast club's 26-man squad for Saturday's pre-season opener against Geelong.
Eighteen-year-old Rowell admits it is hard not to start thinking about making his AFL debut when the Suns host Port Adelaide in round one on March 21.
"When you're pretty young, all you can really think about is next week because we just want to play games and we're so excited about the possibility," Rowell told AAP.
"I guess you've kind of got to put it in perspective and look in the long run of what we can achieve at this club in the years to come.
"Hopefully it's long careers for us but for us young boys it's hard not to look into the near future and see what we can be doing in a month's time."
Rowell says the lessons learned in last week's scratch match against the Lions was a taste of what's to come, and one that has just made him hungrier to get an opportunity in the AFL.
"There's little tricks around centre bounces and stoppages that some players do to you and you go 'oh that's pretty good'," he said.
"So I've kept that in the memory bank and will remember it so they won't use it against me, or I can use it as well.
"Just training makes me hungry, so a game makes me even hungrier.
"I just loved it out there."
Australian Associated Press
