18-year-old Ryan Maricย will debut for the West Coast Eagles this weekend, just 10 after being taken at Pick 1 in last week's Mid-Season Draft.
Maric has played for Gippsland, the Young Guns, Box Hill and the WAFL Eagles this year alone, and now gets his chance to play at AFL level.
The Eagles confirmed Maric's inclusion on Thursday, with the teenager telling westcoasteagles.com.auย of his disbelief in the short turnaround.
"It's just pretty surreal, I only got drafted a week ago. I've only been here four or five days, so to go straight in pretty quickly it's pretty crazy. I'm just over the moon. It's all happened pretty quickly. I'm so happy," Maric said.
Maric had never been to Perth before being drafted and was quickly on the plane over from Melbourne, leaving behind a job stacking shelves at Woolies.
"It's a bit of a whirlwind. My head has been spinning the first couple of days, just trying to settle into my new living arrangements and new schedule. It's all happening," he said.
Maric's debut comes amidst an injury crisis for West Coast, with an already lengthy injury list inflating to 21 after last weekend's clash with Collingwood, following three injuries and the withdrawal of Tom Barrass prior to the game.
West Coast will travel to Adelaide Oval to play the Adelaide Crows at 4:35pm (AEST) on Saturday.
