OSCAR McDonald says his first AFL match was “a fair step-up” to what he had been used to, but he relished every moment.

The younger brother of teammate Tom impressed with 15 touches against Fremantle at Domain Stadium and said it was a great learning experience.

“I came off at quarter-time and had about six different bumps and my heart felt like it was going to explode. It was a step-up in pace, but I think I adjusted all right,” he told Dee TV.

“It was a poor start from us, but after quarter-time, we really stepped up and were able to put in a decent performance based on effort.

“I did some good things, but I did some poor things that I’ll look at later in the week. I felt like I settled in all right.

“I was able to not worry about the crowd or anything like that. Once I got focused on the footy, I think I did some all right things.”

The defender said he was pretty calm leading into his first match.

“I wasn’t really nervous going into it really. When I ran out, you could hear the crowd and they were yelling and screaming and I thought ‘hang on, this is the big stage and this is a dream come true’. Once I got that first touch, I settled down.” he said.

“Leading into it, I was with Tom as we stayed in the same room.

“He just said ‘keep it simple’ and ‘take a few deep breaths’. He presented my jumper before the game and had a few nice words, so it was always good to hear a bit of confidence coming from your brother and a teammate.”

The 19-year-old said he was determined to do everything he could to finish the season strongly and take his game to the next level over the pre-season and 2016.

“I’ll just try and do everything I can during this week to try and put my hand up for next week,” he said.

“Then I’ll get through this game and then another game going into pre-season to give me some momentum rolling into pre-season.”