WHEN THE plane touched down in South Australia on Saturday, Corey Durdin was ready for a smooth, stress-free six-hour wait inside the Adelaide Oval cricket nets.

Meanwhile, his parents were at home preparing to head to the ground to watch their son’s team play — not necessarily watching Corey himself.

Then, everything happened very quickly.

Settling in to play some FIFA as the travelling party awaited their negative Covid results to move into the Adelaide Oval changerooms, Durdin and the rest of his teammates were called in by Senior Coach David Teague.

Co-captain Patrick Cripps would be a late withdrawal from some quad tightness sustained in Thursday’s main training session, and Durdin would make his debut — in his home state no less.

“I flew over with the boys to Adelaide, which was good in itself. We were chilling before the game, and then ‘Teaguey’ brought the group together to announce that I was playing my first game,” Durdin said.

“I was super excited, and it sort of came out of nowhere really.

“It was a special moment for the boys to get around me, to debut in front of my family and friends and to share a special moment with ‘Murph’ in his retirement and 300th.”

Luckily, the Durdin family were already going to head to the ground, but it still didn’t stop the inevitable pandemonium from taking place.

Quickly informing his parents of the news before returning back to game mode, it was a few hours before the Blues could then head into the ground and Durdin could be presented his guernsey by the very man he replaced in the side.

While fellow debutant Brodie Kemp received his in the rooms with his loved ones over the Zoom, the hometown situation meant the decision was made to have Cripps present Durdin with his jumper on the ground, with his family watching on from the front row.

“It was a bit of a blur,” he said.

“We had the commentator at Adelaide Oval speaking over ‘Rick’ too. It was still such a special moment to be given my guernsey in front of my family and friends.

“Despite the result, it was a great experience to be out there. It’s AFL footy, it’s my dream.

“I was quite proud to be able to do what I did on the weekend. Hopefully I made the fans proud and my family proud.”

Saturday very much presented a changing of the guard for the Blues, with so much experience coming out of the side and Murphy playing his final game juxtaposed by the double debut of Durdin and Kemp.

Carlton’s two first selections in the last two drafts, Durdin said he was looking forward to playing “many more games” with his counterpart in the coming years.

As for next year?

He feels as though gaining the experience of senior football before the year was out could be the perfect catalyst for his impending first full pre-season at IKON Park.

“Having that taste now and leading into the off-season is really going to make me more motivated. I’m a lot more hungry and I’ve got a clear off-season plan, to come back stronger and fitter,” he said.

“It’s been a great learning year for me. I’ve learnt so much more about how to be more professional.

“Despite mixing [scratch matches] with other clubs and getting some VFL games together, it’s been so good to be out there playing and I’m pretty grateful for that.

“I’m really excited for my growth between now and next year.”