his side\u2019s eight-point King\u2019s Birthday win over Collingwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cYeah, what a day to make your debut and what a game, so it makes it even more special.<\/p>\n
\u201cHearing that crowd \u2026 they were loud tonight. That last quarter was unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luker Kentfield of the Demons gets the shower for his first win. Picture: James Wiltshire\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kentfield, 20, was selected for his AFL debut 724 days after being drafted. Outside of a final, it might\u2019ve been the grandest stage to play your first game, considering the enormity of this year\u2019s Big Freeze match.<\/p>\n
Kentfield was taken by the Demons in the 2024 mid-season draft, but had to wait nearly two years for his first game due to injury setbacks and competition for spots inside Melbourne\u2019s forward 50.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just makes it even more special when you have to work for it,\u201d Kentfield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got to the club, I was a long way off playing. When you have those little interruptions, you\u2019ve got to work through them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it makes the debut even more emotional, especially with family involved as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentfield, after a strong summer, had been tracking towards an early-season AFL debut before copping a knee injury\/concussion double in the Demons\u2019 Community Series match against Richmond in late February.<\/p>\n
Luker Kentfield of the Demons high fives fans after winning. Picture: Quinn Rooney\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt probably the fittest, strongest I\u2019d ever felt, so the knee injury was disappointing and it took me a while to get back to my best,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I had a good last couple weeks and finally got the debut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentfield earned his debut after a strong patch of VFL form. He kicked 20 goals from eight games, placing him fourth on the competition\u2019s goalkicking tally. That came after 24 goals from 17 VFL matches in 2025.<\/p>\n
The WA native, who was plucked out of the Carine and Subiaco Football Clubs, said he ordered between 15 to 20 tickets for loved ones to attend his debut match, with many flying over from WA.<\/p>\n
\u201cNerve-wrecking, emotional \u2013 just a lot of emotions involved,\u201d Kentfield said when asked what it was like running out onto the MCG in front of over 88,000 fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think definitely for family and all they\u2019ve done for me to get me into this point. It was a special week to have them involved.<\/p>\n
Luker Kentfield celebrates his first goal. Picture: Michael KleinSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re proud and that\u2019s sort of all I want to do is make them proud and a lot of hard work to now.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also didn\u2019t take long for Kentfield to deliver his first AFL goal on Monday.<\/p>\n
After an early behind, Kentfield was on the end of a perfectly-weighted Bayley Fritsch pass and took a strong contested mark 30m out from goal.<\/p>\n
Despite his family\u2019s clear nerves watching in the grandstand, Kentfield showed great composure to nail the goal, prompting every Demons player to run over and congratulate him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the heart rate was 200-plus beats per minute when I was lining up, especially on that first one. I think the second one I was a bit calmer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just went through the routine that I\u2019ve done plenty of times and thankfully it went through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just been on the journey with them (teammates) the whole two years. They\u2019ve been supporting me every time I\u2019ve been injured or getting around me with love. Blokes you see every day and spend a lot of time with you, it makes it special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentfield was on the bench in the final minute when Kysaiah Pickett marked inside 50, inconceivably played on and slotted the match-winning goal to seal an eight-point Melbourne win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would normally do that (play on) anyway, but when it happened I was on the bench at the time and everyone went mental,\u201d Kentfield said.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Take your 30 seconds\u2019 \u2013 because there was not long left in the end. Thankfully he kicked it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that he has a taste for AFL footy, Kentfield wants more.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially watching on at the start of the year after I got injured, the first couple of rounds were so exciting \u2013 and sitting on the sidelines, you just want to be part of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact I\u2019ve had to work hard for it, it just makes it even more special to want to keep getting better and be part of this team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was drenched from head to toe in water and sports drink. But you couldn\u2019t wipe the beaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,2095,64,63,689,55,639,350234,3423,350233,350231,10133,252220,204593,350230,350232,39241,2105,73908,115359,147322,70801,647,7804,2041,2067,677,28008,6858,85,23082,2614,660,4899],"class_list":["post-722862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-beaming-smile","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-bonkers-bench-moment","tag-clear-nerves-watching","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-community-series","tag-couple-weeks","tag-dangerous-tackling-action","tag-debut-journey","tag-debut-match","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-heart-rate","tag-injury-setback","tag-injury-setbacks","tag-kysaiah-pickett","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-quinn-rooney","tag-richmond","tag-sports","tag-theme-song","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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