Jace, congratulations on being selected for your first match. How are you feeling?
A bit of everything – relieved and excited. It's all come about pretty quickly after being elevated and being an emergency last week to all of a sudden playing with the big boys, so it's good times. 'Bomber' told me I was close last week and he said, “Go back to [Sandringham] and play a good game.”

There was a bit of talk around the place from older players like Brucey and Greeny and they mentioned I was a chance this week. Bomber came up this morning before he went into a coaches' meeting and he said, “You're playing this week, young fella, so good luck and congratulations”.

So it's been a pretty big day.

Have you got family and friends coming over from South Australia?
The club's been fantastic. They're looking after Mum and Dad, but some of my mates anticipated that I might be playing this week and they already booked flights for Saturday morning. I gave them the call and confirmed I was playing, so they were pretty relieved they weren't wasting their money.

What's been the reaction of your teammates?
I've come from a long way behind due to my disc bulge earlier in the year after I missed the last two months of pre-season. It's been an uphill battle to get my body right this year. I started playing footy in the Sandy twos and I worked from there. It obviously hasn't been a fantastic year for the club, but the leaders and older blokes have really helped me and been very supportive.

How did you hurt your back?
No one really knows. There wasn't actually one specific moment. It was just a gradual process, but I was doing some squats in the weights room and I felt something go one day and that was in mid-January. Something funny flicked in my back and I remember waking up the next morning and after five minutes of waking up I was in pain for the rest of the day. It was a pretty long couple of months, but the doctors and physios at the club really helped me out. I ended up having an epidural, which was unpleasant, but that fixed me.

You were an under-18 All-Australian in 2005 with the likes of Marc Murphy, Dale Thomas and Joel Selwood and Melbourne teammate Nathan Jones, but you were overlooked for the NAB AFL Draft. Can you tell us about that time?
I was lucky to play some good games and get named All-Australian and the draft camp was good exposure. It was good to compete against the Marc Murphys and Nathan Joneses of this world – to see where you were at.

I missed out at the draft, but then I was picked up in the rookie draft by the Demons and I'm very happy at the club. I was pretty confident I was going to Port Adelaide – I'd spoken to seven clubs – and then Craig Cameron rang up and said, “We're going to look at you in the rookie draft, so would you be happy to come across?”

To be honest, I didn't expect to be taken by Melbourne, but it's worked out well.

So how have you handled the move to Melbourne?
The South Australian boys have really looked after me – Jared Rivers and Mark Jamar – and I've been living with Daniel Bell for 18 months.

It's been fantastic finding my feet. I got a bit homesick last year, but this year has been good. Even with my back injury, it's been great to get to know the boys better.

Still, it's been a tough year for the club, particularly with the departure of Neale Daniher. How did you handle that?
My situation, as a rookie, was a lot different to a lot of the older boys, who had a lot of dealings with Neale. He was always good and open with me about where I was at and what I needed to improve on and then when he left, it was a pretty big shock. It took a few days to get our heads around it, but I was trying to focus on playing good footy at Sandringham.

And how have you found 'Bomber' Riley?
He's been great. I'm just so happy to be elevated in Whitey's 250th. Hopefully we can have a good game and I can contribute to the team and do what Bomber requires me to do.