Western Bulldogs defender Fletcher Roberts knew of his impending AFL debut with less than 30 minutes to go before the bounce at the MCG against Richmond on Sunday - but it didn’t affect the 19-year-old producing an impressive first up effort. 

Ryan Griffen’s late withdrawal with a back spasm in the warm up paved the way for Roberts, who didn’t have much time to think before he was handed the Red, White and Blue Guernsey for the first time.

Watch highlights of Fletcher Roberts' debut plus an exclusive post match interview with BulldogsTV on the media player above.

“In the warm up, Griff [Ryan Griffen] didn’t come up so I had to do my warm up pretty quickly and do the last warm up with the team and go out and be the sub for the first two and a half quarters and then get my shot,” Roberts said.

 “A lot of thoughts were going through my head but the boys definitely, particularly Boydy, looked after me… [he] said, you’ve earned your spot, make sure you do your best.”

Coming on mid-way through the third quarter, Fletcher looked poised in his debut game, finishing with eight possessions and three marks in just over 40 minutes of football.

The athletic defender said although he was pleased with his debut,  he knew there was still a way to go before he considered himself a bona fide AFL player. 

“I was pretty happy [with the way I played], I’ve still got a lot of improvement to go,” Roberts said

“You get a lot of help from the backline, including Roughy [Jordan Roughead], Brian Lake and Bobby Murphy, [they] give you a lot of communication, and really help you through.”