Essendon will unearth a 14th debutant this season, with Jayden Nguyen to play his first AFL game against Sydney this Saturday.
The first player of Vietnamese descent in VFL-AFL history, the rookie from the Bombers’ James Hird Academy and will live out his childhood dream after an impressive run of recent form in the Victorian Football League.
Despite a setback at the halfway point of the year with a foot injury, the 177 centimetre defender has shown his potential in spades.
With the announcement, Essendon now holds the AFL-era record (excluding expansion clubs) for debutants in a single season, besting Fitzroy’s previous number of 13 back in 1991.
Nguyen is grateful for his opportunity and hoping to continue inspiring his community along his AFL journey.
“I’m just trying to take it all in. I’d just woken up from a nap and I’m like ‘Scotty’s calling me? What’s up there?’,” he told the Essendon website.
“He told me to keep my plans for this weekend free because they were about to get a fair bit better. It was the last thing I was expecting to hear, I’m still in a bit of shock.
“I told the family as soon as I ran out of the room and my dad just started running around the house screaming. It was so bloody good.
Nguyen was drafted out of the Calder Cannons and Aberfeldie.
