A soccer tragic-turned-football hero has downplayed his match-winning efforts on Sunday that reaffirmed Fremantle's credentials as a finals contender.
Debutant Ryan Nyhuis booted four goals, including two crucial ones in the final term, to lift a depleted Dockers side from the canvas at Etihad Stadium and sink North Melbourne by four points. For most of the match, he was pitted against the Roos' best player, full-back Robbie Tarrant.
Nyhuis' haul is the most by any Docker on debut and he became just the 13th first-game player in VFL-AFL history to kick four or more goals.
"I just threw it on the boot and tried to line it up and they all just floated through," Nyhuis told ESPN.
The 20-year-old NT Thunder product was told on Sunday morning that he'd be lacing up for his first AFL game, after David Mundy failed to overcome illness.
Somehow, Nyhuis' parents were given the news in time for them to catch a flight from Darwin in time to see the match.
The youngster said the late call up wasn't unsettling - nor was the fact he'd never played up forward before.
"Dave's [Mundy] obviously been under the weather for the past couple of days, so I found out the morning of the game that I'd be playing," he told ESPN. "I've got a coach, Adam Reid, assigned to me and he came over and shook my hand and said, 'you've got the guernsey today'. It was a huge thrill. A dream come true.
"It was the first time in my life I had played forward, basically. Ross threw me a curve ball. It was great to be able to do the job.
"The approach I took coming over was that I was preparing myself to play regardless. Even if Dave didn't go down, I would've prepared myself as best as possible to play.
"I just hope there's plenty of more good news to come."
As a youngster, Nyhuis had ambitions to take his soccer further.
But by his late teens, Nyhuis converted to Aussie Rules, where his talent saw him became a feared player in the Northern Territory Football League.
Initially drafted as a defender, Nyhuis was planted around the goalface on the weekend in a masterstroke move that proved to be the difference in the Dockers securing its seventh victory for the year.
"To do my job for the team is the most important aspect to me. To get the win as well was what we came here for," he told ESPN. "I felt the team improved today and everyone stepped up."
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