Ben Toohey's hard work in recent weeks has paid dividends as the teenager has been selected to make his first grade debut for Turvey Park in their clash against Wagga Tigers on Saturday.
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Toohey graduated from the under 17.5 competition at the end of last season and he has played seven games so far this year in reserve grade for the Bulldogs.
The 18-year-old has enjoyed a strong last month and is coming off a best on ground performance in Turvey Park's 12-point reserve grade win against Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes last weekend.
His efforts haven't gone unnoticed and Toohey said that he was looking forward to making his senior debut against the Tigers.
"Yeah it's very exciting," Toohey said.
"I've been working fairly hard for it and it's nice to get the chance.
"Hopefully I can give back to the club that I've played for for a fair few years."
Toohey is a Bulldogs junior who has worked his way through the junior club into under 17.5's, reserve grade and now seniors.
He agreed it makes the occasion a bit more special given how much time he's spent wearing the red, white and blue.
"Yeah it does," he said.
"Just seeing how happy everyone is that coached me through the previous years is bringing a smile to my face.
"I'll just try and prove myself out there and make everyone at Turvey that's believed in me so far proud."
Toohey admitted he's got some mixed feelings ahead of his first game at senior level and also noted that he was hopeful the Bulldogs could notch up their fourth win of the season at Robertson Oval.
"I'm a bit nervous to be honest," he said.
"But hopefully I can play the best footy I can and we get the result."
The teenager revealed that he had always been aiming to play senior footy, however he admitted he wasn't too concerned if the opportunity didn't present itself this season.
"It was always a goal," he said.
"But I didn't mind too much this year just with work and all that.
"It's always great to get a crack into a senior team and I feel like I've worked my way into there now and hopefully I can give back to the club and play the best footy that I can."
Toohey has been a regular contributor for the Bulldogs at reserve grade level this year and he said he's been pretty happy with how their season has been going so far.
"It's been good ressies," he said.
"We've got a good mix of older and younger blokes and our coach Lachy McRae has also played a fair bit of first grade
"He's been helping me with my game and developing me which has been great.
"I've been fairly happy with how I've been going.
"I'm just trotting along and trying to improve areas in my game that I see as weaknesses which has been fairly good.
"A lot of the boys have been helping me with that."
Toohey will come off the bench tomorrow for the Bulldogs and he revealed he's yet to have an in-depth chat with coach Chris Jackson about the role he will play against the Tigers.
"Not really," he said.
"I'd assume that will come around on gameday.
"But a couple of the boys have just been saying to play my usual gamestyle as they want me in there for the run and carry that I provide.
"I'll just keep bringing my form through and hopefully I'll play the same gamestyle that I've been playing the last couple of weeks."
