First ever game, nine goals to his name; that was the start to life in football for Mabior Chol, so it's little to surprise to see the Hawthorn fan favourite ooze the swagger he does.
The 200cm tall is at his third AFL club and seems to have settled as a forward-ruck option, with his cool, calm, collected nature earning him the nickname, Chols Royce, after the famous high end car manufacturer.
Chol and his family were refugees going from his home in South Sudan through Egypt before finally landing in Queensland. A natural athlete Chol lightly dabbled in football at his primary school in Brisbane suburb Yeronga.
Having seen his vertical leap, height and natural sporting ability, Yeronga Devils Football Club was quick to encourage Chol to join the club as a junior.
His former coach from under-14s through to under-19s, Jack Hurst, said Chol's first club game was ultra special for two reasons.
"I remember his first game, I think he kicked nine goals," Hurst told Zero Hanger. "That was his first game, and it just happened.
"Where our club is at Yeronga, AFL Queensland had a head office there, and it just so happened we were playing on a Sunday, and it just happened there was a talent ID guy from the AFL who was in there doing some work on a Sunday, walked past and saw some of the game.
"(Chol) kind of got a bit identified almost straight away from that game and (they) probably kept an eye on him from there."
Fifteen years' later and Chol has 167 goals and 115 games in the AFL to his name after spending six seasons at Richmond (31 games, 24 goals), two at Gold Coast (30 games, 54 goals) and the past three at Hawthorn (54 games, 89 goals).
But back during his childhood, while his father John would drive a taxi to pay the bills, Yeronga Football Club volunteers would make sure Chol had a ride from school to training and games and back home.
That connection to the club and those volunteers has led Chol to come back to the Devils on multiple occasions to help run clinics and training sessions, while his younger brother, Abraham, plays at the club still.
During Hurst's time coaching Chol, he found his gun towering tall would play at his best when he was enjoying himself, something that has translated to his life at AFL level.
"I reckon that was when he played his best when he was kind of happy and relaxed," he said. "Which, maybe early on in his AFL career, he maybe wasn't so much. I think when he's relaxed and happy to enjoy the game is probably when he plays his best from what I observed over the years.
"(I'm) extremely proud. It's a good word for it, and also, full disclosure, I'm a Hawks fan too, so it's great to see that he's there. When he was about 15 or 16 I sent (Hawthorn) a letter just to say, 'Look out for this guy', being a Hawks fan I tried to set him up there, but never heard anything back.
"He was a lot of fun like I said he'd bring a lot of energy to training. He was quite well known if you were coming in after a drill and people were standing around, he'd actually leapfrog them fully standing, just with his vertical jump, so that was always like one of his tricks... I think he even did it to me a couple of times.
"He was everyone's sort of favourite teammate as well back then."
Yeronga State High School teacher and football coach Geoff Palmer joined the school the same year as Chol moved into secondary education.
Palmer said he remembers recognising Chol as a raw but naturally sporty kid who drew early comparisons to a former Australian rugby star.
"He's playing in the school basketball team, he's dunking in year eight, he's winning the high jump, doing scissor jumps nearly two metres," Palmer told Zero Hanger.
"The coach of the (rugby) league team (at the school), he used to work at another school and he was amazed at Mabior. He said he's probably the best athlete he'd seen in school since Israel Folau - he coached him in school, Israel, in rugby union."
Palmer said an opportunity for Chol to play for Queensland in the now-defunct All Nations Cup, a tournament designed to grow diversity in junior football, helped boost his hopes of making it to AFL level after he caught the eye of a Carlton great.
"(AFL) Queensland would ring me and say, 'Have you got four or five kids from a diverse background who want to go on a trip?" he said.
"Mabior was an obvious choice and a few of the other guys that were pretty good, who were African usually or some Middle Eastern kids, they whack them in Queensland kit, they paid for the flights. It was like this four day trip in school holidays.
"They're about 15 years of age, so that was a perfect thing for him to go to because obviously that was a little next step up and he's among kids that he feels comfortable. So he goes on a couple of All Nations trips.
"I think even one year, they picked the World Team at the end of it... and Anthony Koutoufides might have coached that team and he made a really big impression on him.
"I remember 'Kuta' stayed in touch with him and he had photos with him and I think Kuta took him under his wing a little bit and spotted the potential."
Chol's continuous rise in performances saw the Brisbane Lions Academy target the athletic tall. Although Chol stayed part of the Lions academy throughout the rest of his junior years, he was overlooked in the 2015 draft in favour of Ben Keays and Eric Hipwood.
Richmond would select Chol in the rookie draft that year with pick 30.
