Tom Green wandered around the corridors of Greater Western Sydney's headquarters harbouring a message of thanks. Little did he know he would get a message in return to fuel his desire to become an AFL footballer.
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The Giants academy prospect spent a week of the gruelling pre-season in western Sydney with one of the AFL's perennial contenders that would often leave him craving a lay down in bed.
Rest only came after he soaked up as much as he could from midfield coach Lenny Hayes, big-name trio Callan Ward, Phil Davis and Jeremy Cameron, and the two he bunked with in Isaac Cumming and Harry Perryman.
But it was a chance meeting with Giants coach Leon Cameron inside the walls of GWS' training base that will stick with Green upon his return to the capital.
"He just said, which was a great message to hear, there is stuff in my game I’ve got to keep working on but ‘you know what your strengths are and never go away from them’, because that’s what makes me the footy player I am," Green said.
"I just bumped into him in the corridor. I was looking for him to say ‘thanks very much for having us up there’, and I just saw him in the corridor. I said thank you and got some awesome words.
"It’s a bit surreal, you see blokes like him and Callan Ward on the TV, there are moments when I really think about it and it’s a little bit surreal.
"It becomes less surreal the more you see them around and the more you get to know them."
Green will be based in Canberra this season while training and playing with the Giants Academy, while also setting his sights on representing the Allies in the under 18 nationals and the Giants in the NEAFL.
It was much the same last season, with the teenager limited to a handful of games with Marist College in AFL Canberra's Rising Stars competition due to a raft of representative duties.
Now he is ready to make his presence felt in the NEAFL after living his dream in the helter skelter world of AFL pre-season for a week.
"You hear about how full-on AFL pre-season are, but it’s amazing. There’s training out on the field, working on skills and things, and then you’re back into meetings or into weights. It’s a full on day, by the end of the day I’m keen to get home and lie down, lie in bed," Green said.
"There’s obviously a big advantage coming from Victoria when you’re looking to get drafted, because that’s where recruiters are each week.
"Those boys don’t get an experience like this really, to train with an AFL club as much as us academy boys do. I think it’s just fantastic.
"If you go up there and you’re in your shell the whole time, you’re not really going to get the most out of the experience. Sometimes you’re going to feel uncomfortable putting yourself out there and speaking up, but the way to get the most out of the entire experience, you’ve just got to give everything you do a red-hot crack."
