As expected Jack Redpath noticed a stark contrast between VFL football and lining up against Geelong’s elite defence, but the bustling forward was far from disgraced in his first AFL outing.

The tempo of the game was the biggest adjustment for the 23-year-old Bulldogs forward, especially when transitioning between attack and defence. 

“It was a little bit different to playing with the boys at Footscray, so much faster, as soon as they get the ball they take off,” Redpath said.

“I thought we did pretty well [but there were] a few things that let us down – the ball coming out of the back half, sometimes it came out a bit easy.

“Overall I think we competed really well, like I said there were just a few things that let us down.”

The Bulldogs fell to Geelong by 13 points at the final siren but Redpath believes his side’s ability to work their way back into the game after a slow first half was pleasing.

“Obviously that first half we got beaten up around the ball a bit, we just needed our guys to crack in and I think we started to get on top of them around the footy,” he said.

While Redpath was giving up 150 games experience to Cats swingman Harry Taylor for much of the game, he showed promising signs creating a contest in the Bulldogs forward line.

Taking heed of his first game at AFL level, the bustling forward said there was plenty for him to work on individually and as a team this week ahead of Saturday’s clash against Gold Coast in Cairns.

“Probably just the pace of it… and I guess just how as a group we just have to be a little bit stronger for a longer period of time if we want to be able to teams like Geelong,” he said.

“Hopefully we can go up against the Gold Coast next week and get a good result.”