There were wild scenes at Marvel Stadium after Collingwood’s Oscar Steene pulled off a memorable debut before friends who had travelled far and wide to watch their much-loved mate in action.
For Steene — who arrived at the club at the end of 2022 and signed three months later as an SSP (pre-season supplemental selection period) rookie — it was a dream come true, more than 1100 days in the making.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Collingwood’s Oscar Steene makes emotional AFL debut
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And he proved to be an inspired choice for coach Craig McRae, with 20 hitouts and a maiden goal that followed a fantastic contested mark.
In partnership with fellow ruck Darcy Cameron, the duo also worked over Giants tall Kieren Briggs in Collingwood’s run-away 33-point win.
After the match, Steene was emotional when he spotted his mates in the crowd.
The debutant, who was told the news of his debut by coach Craig McRae on Wednesday, said the support from his Adelaide friends meant everything to him.
“Those are all my mates from Adelaide. So they all made the trip over. They drove, some of them drove, some of them flew,” Steene told Channel 7 after the game.
“One of them flew from Sydney and he’s got a game at 12pm tomorrow. So it means so much for me that they all came.”
As vision of Steene getting a photo on the fence with all of his mates behind was shown, AFL great Dale Thomas remarked: “How good is that.”
Steene laughed: “Not sure about that.”
Steene said McRae had kept the news confidential earlier in the week, calling him into his office for the special moment.
“Fly took me into his office on Wednesday and, yeah, he just told me between us. And yeah, it was really special. I was happy to hear the news,” he said.
However, Cameron seemed to be clued in that something was afoot and was also full of emotion when he congratulated Steene.
“He’s had a bit of an eventful journey over the last three or four years coming here, he had a few injuries and setbacks, but he’s never dropped his head,” Cameron said during the week.
“I feel like some of the coaches this pre-season gave him a bit of a tough time, riding him pretty hard and pushing him to the limit, but he never once dropped his head, which just shows the kind of person he is, he just wants to get better.
“The improvement he’s made in his game and his body is unbelievable. He’s turned himself into an AFL footballer, which he’ll be able to say after this weekend, which is special, so I can’t wait to play with him because he’s a very good man.”
The debutant praised Cameron as a crucial mentor since joining the club.
“He’s from day one, even when I was just training SSP, he’s been so nice to me,” Steene said.
“He’s one of the leaders of the group and it really shows,” he said.
“He saw me go into Fly’s office and I think he might have known something was up.
“So it was good to share that with him. He’s been huge for me over the past three years.”
– With AAP
