After earning a taste of senior football in the final two games of last season, Gold Coast SUNS key defender Jack Leslie returned on Saturday night against a clinical West Coast Eagles outfit on their own patch.
 
With Steven May, Rory Thompson and Nick Malceski all unavailable, Leslie partnered Henry Schade in the key posts down back, with the pair tossed into a fiery cauldron of fire.
 
The inexperienced duo are undoubtedly two of the main beneficiaries of the injury plague infiltrating Metricon Stadium, with both Leslie and Schade gaining invaluable experience against quality opposition. The exposure set to fast track their development and help sure up the SUNS' defensive stocks.
 
The 20-year-old backman was rewarded with selection against the Eagles following a strong start to the season in the NEAFL, and the Victorian admits seeing the advantages of being exposed to the AFL sooner than later.
 
“I thought I’ve worked pretty hard over the start of the season. It’s good to get a bit of reward for my effort. It was good to get out there a lot sooner than I was last year,” Leslie told SUNS TV.
 
“You really don’t gain the experience until you actually start playing some games. So its just good to get the opportunity to go out and there and play some games and just try and hold my spot in the team.”
 
On Saturday night, there were times where the most experienced member of a youthful back six was Kade Kolodjashnij. In just his second-year and with 25 games to his name, it’s not hard to see how severely the injury curse has struck.
 
The scoreboard only told a fraction of the story, the back six was inundated with Eagle forays inside 50 which made the lives of Leslie and Schade far from easy. Despite the influx of inside 50s, Leslie performed admirably, recording 11 1%s. One of the few positives to come out of the 92-point loss was the growth the pair, and others, got out of their exposure.
 
“It’s actually really good, especially for Henry Schade and I. It’s probably one of the hardest trips to make in the AFL heading over to Western Australia with the flight and travel,” Leslie said.
 
“Us back six we tried to communicate as much as possible and I think we held in pretty well considering how many inside 50s we had against us.”