It’s a debut that’s been a year and a half in the making, but for Trent Dumont it was the perfect reward for hard work.
Having joined the club via the 2013 National Draft, the midfielder had a standout season at North Ballarat.
But Dumont was forced to bide his time, fine-tuning his skills and building the body of an AFL player before playing his first senior game on Sunday.
“It’s something that you want to do when you get drafted straight away. I wanted to do this last year, but obviously wasn’t ready,” he told NMFC.com.au.
“I’ve had a year of development and learning and all that jazz, so I was pretty happy to get out there.”
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As it would for any player, the step up to AFL level proved challenging. But was an important initiation; Dumont played 81 per cent of the game, finishing with nine disposals.
“The opposition’s a lot quicker than the VFL and it took me a little bit to get used to that pace,” he said.
“But if you can’t adapt and don’t get the ball, or you don’t get rid of it quick enough, you’re not going to have a good game.
“It’s do or die really – just a survival thing I guess.”
Many youngsters are eased in during their first match, but Dumont was right at the coal face from the outset – pushed into the Roos’ midfield rotation, he took on some of the Crows’ best.
“We’ve had a long pre-season and playing against Cunners (Ben Cunnington) and Jack (Ziebell) and Dal (Nick Dal Santo), it’s obviously a different experience coming up against different opposition who play inside midfield a little bit differently.
“It took me a little while to get used to it. There were pretty solid bodies in there like (Rory) Sloane, (Nathan) Van Berlo and a few young guys.”
While Dumont and the North line coaches were quick to identify areas of improvement, all in all it was a promising debut.
“The whole match was a pretty positive experience,” Dumont said.
“I was a little bit bruised, but not too bad. That’s always expected on your first hit-out of the year.”
