When Majak Daw received the phone call from Brad Scott last week to tell him he wouldn’t be in the side against St Kilda, the 22-year old was nervous his chance in the seniors might be over for the time being.

“It was pretty hard to digest,” Daw told NMFC.com.au on the Gold Coast.

“I’d played six straight games but towards the end I wasn’t really having an impact at the highest level. When Brad told me I had to go back and work on some of the fundamentals of my game I was really disappointed.”

But not to get disheartened Daw set about improving the things the coach had noted. He remained persistent and more determined than ever to win back his spot.

“It was important for me to go back, get some confidence and stand out from the rest like an AFL player should.

“Going back there (to Werribee) was good for me, to help do the job for the team, use the experience I’ve had from playing AFL footy and have more of an impact.

“As disappointed as I was going back to Werribee, I was really excited to play against the North Ballarat players (the Kangaroos’ other affiliate) too. Now I’m just really grateful to be back in again. It shows a great deal of faith from the coaches in me.”

Despite coming up against a young Suns’ side this week, Daw is still relatively inexperienced compared to his likely opponents.

“Their defenders Rory Thompson and Sam Day have played a lot of AFL games and are pretty experienced now; more so than me and Aaron Black,” he added.

“We’ve put a lot of time into those guys to see what their strengths and weaknesses are. My main focus is to use my strengths against them.

“Gold Coast have been playing some really good footy and were very impressive last week against Geelong so we’re really mindful of how tough they’re going to be to beat.”

Daw believes North’s 68-point win over St Kilda has restored confidence in the playing group.

“After last week’s game, with Boomer (Brent Harvey) and Wellsy (Daniel Wells) reaching their milestones, the boys just seemed to gel so well and there’s a lot of belief amongst the group.

“To be able to win by that margin it just gets the boys up and about. Hopefully we can get a win before the break so we come back strong after the bye.”

As several players are looking forward to a few days rest during the bye, Daw won’t be taking any time to relax.

“I won’t have the days off. It’s an opportunity for me to work on my fitness and do a bit of extra running during the week.

“I sat down with Jona (Segal), our strength and conditioning coach and if I have a week off and don’t train really hard… I don’t want to be underdone. I want to be right so I can put my hand up for selection again.

“I’ll work and train with the VFL guys because Werribee and North Ballarat are still playing.”