NAB League: Zane Duursma makes classy debut for Gippsland Power

Fifteen-year-old Zane Duursma, the brother of Xavier, made a sparkling debut for Gippsland Power in the NAB League Boys.

Zane Duursma ahead of his debut for Gippsland Power.

He was 15 and on debut in an Under 19 competition.

And Zane Duursma could hardly have been more convincing in his first NAB League Boys match for Gippsland Power.

Duursma, the brother of Port Adelaide star Xavier, kicked three goals and was named in the best players in Saturday’s match against the Sydney Swans Academy at Chirnside Park in Werribee.

The Swans pulled away in the last quarter to win 16.9 (105) to 9.7 (61).

Power talent manager Scotty McDougal hadn’t seen the stats from the game. But he’d seen enough in Duursma to call him a “really exciting boy’’.

“He was clean in everything he did … his marking, his ground-ball work, everything,’’ McDougal said.

“With Will Papley coming out of the side we played him as a defensive forward, a pressure forward, and then he got up into the middle.

“He was great, ‘Zano’. Like, for a 15-year-old, he was great. He went to the next level. Just a mature head on his shoulders. He wasn’t perturbed. It was like, ‘I’m meant to be here’. He just had that quiet confidence that he knows he can play.’’

Duursma started the season in Foster’s Thirds and was promoted to play two senior games.

He kicked three goals in both outings for the Tigers.

He’s picked up the Power mantle from his sister Yasmin, who in her first year of football was runner-up in the club’s NAB League Girls best and fairest.

Duursma was one of five Gippsland players making their first appearances in the competition. The others were Rhys Galvin, Jonti Schuback, Cooper Vickery, 200cm ruckman Harvey Howe, all 16-year-old players and all showing promise.

“Because it’s now an Under 19 competition, it’s the youngest side we’ve ever fielded, because in an Under 18 competition we never fielded a 14-year-old and four 15-year-olds,’’ McDougal said.

“When you look at it that way, it’s an amazing thing, and to be really competitive, that’s another tick. With five minutes to go in the second quarter we were three goals up but they gradually wore us down.

“Even though we didn’t get the results we wanted, and we fell away a little bit, which happens with young sides, if you take the win-loss out of it, they never gave up. We couldn’t be happier about how they went about it.’’

Schuback and Vickery played across half back, and Galvin as a key defender.

Luis D’Angelo, a bull of a midfielder in his first year in the NAB League as a 19-year-old, and Aaron Turton bustled away around the ball, and Tristen Waack was a composed figure in defence.

Chance Doultree, who is on Footscray’s VFL list, had 34 disposals and kicked two goals.