ALEX Georgiou says testing himself at the highest level is what he’s looking forward to the most as he prepares for his first AFL match against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

The 24-year-old rookie defender from Norwood said he was ready to make the most of his first opportunity in a home and away fixture.

“It’s something that I’ve always tried to do in life – get the best out of myself – and in football that’ll be taking this opportunity,” he told melbournefc.com.au.  

“I might be standing on someone like Nick Riewoldt for a little bit or someone else, so it’ll be good for myself to confirm that I can play at this level.

“Once you’re out on the field, it’s just another player that you’re trying to beat, but it’d be pretty cool to be standing on players that you’ve watched on TV for the last 10 years.

“I don’t think there will be any additional effort put in – it’ll just be whatever player you’re playing on, you’re trying to beat them.”  

Georgiou, who was selected at No.35 in last November’s NAB AFL Rookie Draft, said his four months at the club “couldn’t have gone any better” so far.

“I think back to the day I got drafted to now making my debut in round one – that’s the best possible scenario,” he said.

“Realistically, for a rookie list player, a lot needs to go right to get the opportunity.”

Georgiou, who was promoted from the rookie to senior list for Mitch Clark, who has been placed on the long term injury list, found out from coach Paul Roos that he was in the team early in the week.  

“I had a bit of a chat with Roosy then and he said I was right in the mix and then on Tuesday morning, when we were doing the warm ups for training, Roosy came around and spoke to me when I was doing some lane kicking,” he said.

“He shook my hand and said ‘you’ve made it [in the side] this week mate, congratulations’. That was pretty cool and then he announced it to the group about five minutes later at training, so it was pretty exciting and there was a bit of banter from the boys.

“It made for an enjoyable training session – that’s for sure.”

Georgiou was treating it as another game of football and said he was “pretty laid back” about it all, since finding out about his upcoming AFL debut.

“I think I’ll be pretty calm and collected and go about my role for the team – that’s the best that I can do. I’ve made a few more phone calls to people back home [in Adelaide], trying to organise for them to come over for the match,” he said.

“But otherwise, it’s been a normal week and I’ve just tried to do everything I can to make sure the body is right for Saturday night. I haven’t gone about anything differently – there’s just been a little bit more organising and media to do.

“I’ve got a couple of mates, who I played with at Norwood, coming over, as well as some family, including my parents, aunties and uncles and my brother and sister, as well as my girlfriend’s parents, who are coming over too. I’ll have a large group there, so that’ll be something a little bit different.”