Mason Wood has long been anticipating the chance to play in the AFL and although his time has finally arrived, he still has to pinch himself.

“Just living a breathing AFL footy is what we’ve wanted to do for the last three or four years…” is how he described his circumstances to kangaroos.com.au.

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“It’s become sort of reality instead of just a dream so just to get here and be amongst the boys and really just live and breathe it is a great experience and a dream come true.”

189 centimetres tall at the beginning of the year, Wood was always confronted with much bigger opponents. But despite adding three centimetres to his frame in the last 12 months, he says coming face-to-face some of the Kangaroos’ players was a whole new proposition.

“I think one thing is; they look a whole lot bigger in real life than they do on TV. I know Drew (Petrie) and Majak (Daw) look like fairly big rigs so that’s a bit daunting.”

He was also blown away by the talented youngsters at North like Jack Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, Leigh Adams and Ryan Bastinac just to name a few.

“These guys (are) big names and have a world of experience and you just try to soak in as much of it as you can from these guys.

“They’re not all…(always) professional…they have a laugh when you have a laugh but really have that ability to switch on when you need to.”

Knowing when to flick that switch is something he too will learn, but there’s something else Wood’s not so sure about.

“I wasn’t feeling that great this morning…we had some pretty funky protein…there’s a whole lot of focus on what we’re eating and what we should and shouldn’t be eating…what we put into our bodies protein-wise and other stuff like that.

“Yeah it’s all new, I haven’t taken a heap of that in the past so trying to get that down, you know four or five big chunks of protein in one serve is pretty hard,” he joked.

The former Geelong Falcon was touted as being one of the top forward prospects in the Draft pool and has already been likened to Giants’ young-gun Jeremy Cameron. 

He finished in the top 10 of the agility test and ranked second in the goal kicking test so it’s no wonder North Melbourne was thrilled to get him at pick 41. 

“I was pretty stoked, I mean North Melbourne’s only 50-minutes up the road from home, so I won’t be getting home-sick or anything anytime soon which is good. 

“Great club and they’re on the up and should be pushing (for a premiership) next two or three years I reckon.”