Star teenager Jack Martin has been handed the No. 4 Guernsey ahead of his debut season in the AFL. 

Vacating his former No. 28, Martin will move closer to two of his most trusted teammates at the club, with the 18-year-old’s locker now located next to housemate Timmy Sumner and mentor Jarrod Harbrow. 

Ironically, it was Harbrow who took Martin under his wing, when he originally relocated to the Gold Coast, after the gun recruit was snared in the Greater Western Sydney’s mini-draft by master scout Scott Clayton and his recruiting team. 

Housing the humbled Western Australian for two months, the proud indigenous ambassador helped Martin adjust to life on the Gold Coast; a task Harbrow says was made much easier given Martins’ self-efficient way of living. 

But what surprised him most, was his polished respect for those around him, courtesy of his humble upbringing. 

“Jack is a very respectful person, and while he arrived at the club as a pretty switched-on teenager, he has certainly grown as a person in his twelve months with the SUNS,” Harbrow said.

“He is just a really likeable guy, and is very much respected amongst the playing group.”

Although the external pressures are sure to surround him, with reports suggesting he is set to eclipse Jaeger O’Meara as winner of next year’s NAB AFL Rising Star, senior coach Guy McKenna says Martin will be treated just like any other first year player.

“We just want Jack to be Jack,” McKenna said on Wednesday.

“The history of the game shows first year players are going to have up and down games.”

“But Jack is giving himself every chance to be the player he wants to be because of his output in the pre-season.”