THURSDAY’S VFL practice match gave five young Demons their first true taste of senior footy; Blake Howes was one of those.

The No.39 draft pick, who has spent the pre-season developing his craft on the wing, took to IKON Park for the Casey Demons, and embraced his opportunity.

“I loved it,” Howes told Melbourne Media post-game.

“I haven’t played a whole lot of senior football, so it was a bit of a step up with the bigger bodies and pace of the game.

“It was one I thought I handled reasonably well, and I’ll just keep progressing forward.”

Howes didn’t take long to get involved in the contest against the Blues, booting the opening goal of the match for Casey.

“Apologies to Weido (Sam Weideman), I think I took his free kick, but I got the first one which was nice to settle the nerves,” he said.

The 18-year-old wouldn’t have been the only nervous player in the early stages of the practice match, with fellow draftees Jacob van Rooyen, Taj Woewodin, Judd McVee and Andy Moniz-Wakefield all pulling on the red and blue for the first time.

And having grown incredibly close to all four of them in the past few months, Howes loved getting the chance to play by their side.

Young Demons shine in VFL hit-out

“They’re all ripper boys,” he said.

“I played a fair bit with Taj on the wing, and was able to look at Andy and Jacob up forward, and Juddy off half-back.

“They all had good efforts out on the field today – I loved it.”

While a few of his other teammates – the Casey-listed players – weren’t quite as familiar to him, the spirit on the field was high.

“I’m still getting to know a lot of them but we had a really good hit-out today,” Howes said.

“It was a really fun game in warm conditions, but it was really good.

“We all had a ball, and everyone got through unscathed which was a positive.

“A lot of learnings and a lot of positives came out of it.”

For the young Victorian, who has been starved of playing matches due to COVID-19 restrictions in recent years, the opportunity to have a competitive clash was something he had been looking forward to.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played a proper game … so I’m just keen to be back,” he said.

“It was nice to get the first one under the belt today and hopefully there’s plenty more to come.”