It only took a few minutes for Josh Begley to allay his fears of not getting a possession in his first appearance at AFL level.

Begley was one of four draftees to represent the Bombers on the weekend in the JLT Community Series match against Gold Coast.

The 18 year old produced an eye-catching performance with four goals.

“I was very nervous running out with the boys but ‘first touch, first goal’ – so that helped get the nerves out [of the way] early,” he said.

“It was good to get a few touches, I was scared that I wouldn’t [get a touch], but it was good to impact the game.”

Top pick Andrew McGrath played his second match of the pre-season while Dylan Clarke and Jordan Ridley got their first taste of senior football.

Kobe Mutch was named in the original 29-man squad but withdrew because of illness.

“I’ve really bonded with the other first year players because we do a lot of stuff together and it was good to run out with them,” Begley said.

“It was unlucky for ‘Mutchy’ who was a late out … but it was good to run out with ‘Dyl’ who is my best mate.”

Begley ended the game with ten possessions, four marks and two tackles.

“The boys said before the game to ‘keep it simple’ and ‘use your big body, win the contested footy and barge in’ … so I just basically did that and it worked out well in the end,” he said.

“If you’re out of position it’s really hard to get back in position quickly, so you’ve got to be on 100% of the time … you can’t switch off.”

Begley said he wants to build on his form throughout the pre-season in the hope of making his AFL debut at some point this year.

“That’s the goal but hopefully I can just keep the form up into hopefully the next practice match or in the VFL and keep doing the team thing and hopefully get picked later in the season,” he said.