Sam Durdin says he was completely blindsided by the news of his debut admitting he had “absolutely no idea” before Brad Scott made the announcement in front of the playing group on Thursday.

“Towards the end of training Scotty brought us all in and was discussing one of the drills and then just out of nowhere mentioned that I’ll be debuting,” Durdin told NMFC.com.au after touching down in Hobart on Friday.

“I was pretty excited … I had absolutely no idea before that.”

The key-defender was obviously aware a spot had opened up in the side following the Geelong loss, but wasn’t sure if he’d get the nod over Ed Vickers-Willis.

“I was thinking to myself there was an opportunity there with Scotty Thompson getting rubbed out but wasn’t told anything and had no idea. We were both tapping each other on the shoulder going, “have you heard anything?””

The 20-year-old and soon to be Shinboner 1,000 quickly turned to his teammates for advice on how to approach his first game in the royal blue and white stripes.

“I spoke a little bit to Preussy (Braydon Preuss) and Dec Mountford … I think the main message I got out of those guys and even the senior guys was just to try take it as if it’s another game no matter what level you’re playing.

“I’ve been in a position before where I’ve thought about the game before the game’s even started just in my head and it’s got to me a little bit. I’ll try and just relax a little bit and get a fair bit of help from the other boys.”

Durdin will battle alongside Robbie Tarrant, Lachlan Hansen, Jamie Macmillan, Luke McDonald and Marley Williams in the backline and knows they’ll face a giant task against GWS.

“They’ve got some quality key-forwards and I’ll be looking to shut them down and make sure they have no impact on the game.”

Durdin comes from Halidon - a tiny town two-hours drive east of Adelaide with a current population of just six. He has a twin brother Mark who played in the SANFL for west Adelaide.